UC-NRLF 


EARTH 
SCIENCES 
LIBRARY 


MIGHTY  ANIMALS 


\ 


Restoration  />•>/  Clciticitt  H.  Davis 
BATTLE    BETWEEN   TWO    DINOSAURS 


MIGHTY   ANIMALS 


BEING    SHORT    TALKS    ABOUT    SOME    OF    THE 

ANIMALS  WHICH  LIVED  ON  THIS  EARTH 

BEFORE   MAN   APPEARED 


BY 

JENNIE   IRENE   MIX 

\\ 


WITH    AN    INTRODUCTION    BY 
DR.   FREDERIC   A.    LUCAS 

DIRECTOR   OF  THE  AMERICAN    MUSEUM   OF   NATURAL   HISTORY 


NEW  YORK  •:•  CINCINNATI  •:•  CHICAGO 

AMERICAN    BOOK    COMPANY 


EARTH 
SCIENCES 
LIBRARY 


COPYRIGHT,  1912,  BY 
JENNIE  IRENE  MIX. 

COPYRIGHT,  1912,  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN. 


MIGHTY  ANIMALS. 
W.   P.      I 


THE  aim  of  this  book  is  to  interest  young  people 
in  the  life  that  was  lived  on  this  earth  before  man 
appeared. 

Of  the  many  wonderful  animals  which  lived 
during  that  period  in  the  earth's  history  only  some 
of  the  most  striking  among  the  gigantic  types 
are  discussed.  For  information  to  be  found  in 
books  regarding  these  animals,  the  author  has  relied 
chiefly  on  two  works  by  Frederic  A.  Lucas,  "Ani- 
mals of  the  Past"  and  "Animals  before  Man  in 
North  America:  Their  Lives  and  their  Times"; 
"Extinct  Animals"  by  Sir  Edwin  Ray  Lankester; 
"Age  of  Mammals  in  Europe,  Asia,  and  North 
America,"  by  Henry  Fairfield  Osborn;  "Extinct 
Monsters,"  by  Henry  Neville  Hutchinson;  and 
"The  Mammoth  and  the  Flood,"  by  Sir  Henry  H. 

5 

359864 


6  I'REFACE 

Ho  worth.     Acknowledgment  of  valuable  assistance 
is  also  due  the  Carnegie  Library  of  Pittsburgh. 

But  the  author's  deepest  obligation  is  to  Dr. 
Frederic  A.  Lucas,  Director  of  the  American  Mu- 
seum of  Natural  History,  for  the  generous  interest 
manifested  by  him  during  the  preparation  of  the 
manuscript  and  its  final  editing  for  scientific  accu- 
racy. Without  this  cooperation  on  the  part  of 
Dr.  Lucas  the  author  would  not  have  ventured  to 
present  this  volume  to  the  public. 

PITTSBURGH,  PENNSYLVANIA.  , 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTION  BY  DR.  FREDERIC  A.  LUCAS        ...  9 

THE  MIGHTY  DINOSAURS 13 

How  A  DINOSAUR  WAS  BURIED  IN  THE  ROCK     .        .       ..31 

How  THE  DINOSAUR  WAS  TAKEN  FROM   THE  ROCK    .        .  43 

DESPOTS  OF  THE  SEAS 63 

THE  FLYING  REPTILES 77 

THE  LITTLE-BRAINED  DINOCERAS 87 

TlTANOTHERES  AND  OTHERS 99 

MAMMOTHS  AND  MASTODONS          ......  Ill 

SOME  SOUTH  AMERICAN  RULERS 129 


INI 


Director  of  American  Museum  cf 
Natural  History 


3^N 

^;;r^-;.v0,;:^%JM 

'    W&&:*^-^ 
.    -  .-\^":.y--..:-'--4--:^:  ~ 


OT  so  very  long  ago  a 
Dinosaur  was  regarded 
as  a  terrible  reptile,  in- 
deed, whose  very  name  was 

*"        •-•'•>••':  ^  ''.-' 

sufficient  to  deter  us  from 
wishing  further  acquaintance  with  him. 

Now  the  name  is  as  familiar  in  our  mouths  as 
household  words;  the  discovery  of  a  Dinosaur  is 
announced  by  the  daily  press  as  a  matter  of  news, 
and  the  Sunday  edition  depicts  him  at  full  length. 
Sometimes,  it  is  true,  the  portrait  is  least  recog- 
nizable by  those  best  acquainted  with  him,  but  it 
shows  the  public  interest  in  these  creatures  of  a 
far  distant  day  and  a  general  desire  to  know  some- 
thing about  their  lives  and  times. 

9 


10  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

Ancient  history  is  largely  a  record  of  the  deeds 
of  certain  mighty  men  whose  achievements  have 
made  them  prominent  among  all  their  fellows,  and 
it  is  fitting  that  something  should  be  said  of  the 
mighty  animals  that  peopled  the  earth  long  before 
man  made  his  appearance. 

The  following  chapters  may  be  looked  upon  as 
a  series  of  biographical  sketches  of  some  of  the 
most  prominent  inhabitants,  the  very  early  settlers, 
so  to  speak,  of  this  and  other  lands,  the  story  of 
their  lives  and  deeds  as  recorded  by  nature  in  the 
stony  leaves  of  the  book  of  the  past  and  translated 
by  man  with  much  difficulty  and  labor.  These 
translations  are  very  incomplete  because  many 
pages  from  this  book  of  the  past  have  been  de- 
stroyed by  Nature  herself,  and  many  others  we 
shall  never  be  able  to  recover,  so  deeply  are  they 
buried  in  the  rocks.  But  it  is  a  very  interesting 
history,  "for  there  were  giants  in  those  days  of 
old"  and  Miss  Mix  tells  us  how  they  swam  through 
the  seas,  splashed  through  the  marshes,  and  tramped 
over  the  hills  of  the  ancient  world.  More  than 
this,  Miss  Mix  shows  us  how  they  looked,  these 


INTRODUCTION  11 

strange  beasts  that  lived  in  a  time  when  there  was 
no  human  being  to  look  at  them. 

It  is  a  pity  to  spoil  a  story,  or  a  book,  by  draw- 
ing a  moral,  yet  there  is  one  point  that  I  cannot 
help  making.  How  often,  when  looking  at  the 
skeleton  of  one  of  these  huge  monsters,  has  some 
one  remarked,  "What  a  pity  that  these  creatures 
could  not  have  lived  until  now,  so  that  we  might 
see  them  in  the  flesh  ! "  True,  it  would  be  interest- 
ing !  Now  there  is  much  danger  that  our  very 
great  grandchildren,  passing  through  the  museums 
of  to-morrow,  will  often  remark,  "  What  a  pity  that 
all  these  animals  should  have  been  exterminated  by 
our  ancestors ! " 

Let  us  therefore  try  to  save  a  few  animals  in 
some  sanctuary  so  that  our  descendants  may  know 
about  the  creatures  of  to-day,  for  then  there  may  be 
no  Miss  Mix  to  tell  about  them. 


m 


(14) 


LIMB   OF.  DINOSAUR   IN  POSITION 
(Field  Photograph,  American  Museum  of  Natural  History) 


THE   MIGHTY  DINOSAURS 

THERE  was  a  time  when  the  whole  world  was 
ruled  by  mighty  animals  many  of  which  were  of 
gigantic  size  and  quite  unlike  the  animals  of  to-day. 
For  thousands  of  centuries  they  were  the  monarchs 
of  the  land,  the  water,  and  the  air,  and  nearly  all 
of  them  died  long  before  any  human  being  had 
lived. 

But,  although  the  most  wonderful  among  these 
animals  disappeared  millions  of  years  before  there 
were  any  people  in  the  world,  we  know  how  some 
of  them  looked,  where  they  made  their  homes,  what 
they  ate,  and,  in  some  cases,  how  they  died.  It  is 
because  their  bones  have  been  found  that  so  much 
is  known  about  them.  These  bones  are  all  buried 
in  rocks,  and  there  are  men  who  spend  their  time 
searching  for  these  rocks  that  -they  may  dig  out 
the  bones  and  study  them.  In  this  way  much 
has  been  learned  concerning  these  creatures  which 
once  were  the  rulers  of  the  world.  And  among 

15 


16  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

them  none  were  more  powerful  than  the  Dino- 
saurs, for  they  were  the  largest  of  all  animals 
that  have  ever  walked  the  earth.  Even  their 
name  sounds  terrifying,  for  Dinosaur  means  Terri- 
ble Lizard. 

These  monsters  were  scattered  over  the  world, 
but  the  United  States,  especially  the  western  por- 
tion, seems  to  have  been  their  headquarters.  Im- 
mense quantities  of  their  bones  have  been  found  in 
Wyoming  and  Montana,  and  many  others  have  been 
unearthed  in  Colorado.  We  know  that  these 
creatures  also  roamed  over  other  parts  of  our 
country,  and  in  some  places  even  the  marks  of 
their  footprints  are  to  be  seen  in  the  rocks.  By 
comparing  all  the  Dinosaur  bones  and  footprints 
discovered  in  the  world  men  have  been  able  to 
learn  how  different  from  one  another  many  of 
these  animals  were  in  their  looks  and  habits. 

That  some  were  flesh  eaters  and  that  others  ate 
only  plants,  is  shown  by  the  formation  of  their 
teeth.  There  were  big  ones  that  were  weak  and 
small  ones  that  were  strong.  Certain  kinds 
walked  on  all  fours,  while  the  front  legs  of  others 


THE   MIGHTY   DINOSAURS  17 

were  so  short  they  could  walk  only  on  their  hind 
legs,  like  the  kangaroo.  Some  were  reptile-footed ; 
others  had  feet  like  birds.  But  the  men  who  have 
made  a  study  of  their  bones  have  classed  them  all 
with  the  reptiles  although  they  looked  no  more 
like  the  reptiles  of  to-day  than  an  elephant  looks 
like  a  canary  bird. 

Wonderful,  indeed,  must  the  world  have  ap- 
peared when  the  Dinosaurs  were  alive !  Some 
of  them  were  sixteen  feet  high  and  eighty  feet 
long.  Although  these  huge  ones  walked  on  all 
fours,  they  occasionally  raised  themselves  up  on 
hind  legs  and  tail,  and  when  in  this  position  their 
heads  must  have  been  fully  forty-five  feet  above 
the  ground.  Did  a  plant-eater  see  some  sweet,  ten- 
der leaves  at  the  top  of  a  big  tree?  Then,  if  he 
was  hungry,  all  he  had  to  do  was  to  sit  up  on  his 
hind  legs,  rear  his  head,  and  pluck  off  the  tooth- 
some bit.  Or  did  he  suspect  that  an  enemy  was 
approaching?  Instead  of  depending  on  ears  and 
smell  alone  to  detect  the  foe  while  still  at  a  dis- 
tance, he  could  rear  up  and  take  a  look  at  the  sur- 
rounding country.  Had  there  been  any  houses  in 

MIGHTY    ANIMALS  —  2 


18 


MIGHTY  ANIMALS 


those  days,  he  could  have  looked  right  over  the  top 
of  a  good-sized  three-story  building. 

When  the  Dinosaur  called  Diplodocus  reared  up 
in  this  fashion  he  must  have  presented   a  most 
ridiculous    sight.      Stretching    forty    feet 
along  the  ground  was  his  tail;    then 
came  his  upright  body  twenty  feet 
in  length ;  next  was  his  neck 
reaching  up  twenty  or 
twenty-five  feet  far- 
ther.     And   at  the 

end  of  this  neck  was 

v^s. 

MODEL   OF   DIPLODOCUS    AND    MAN   TO   SHOW   COMPARATIVE   SIZE 

a  head  no  bigger  than  that  of  a  small  horse.  As  for 
his  mouth,  well,  it  is  impossible  to  imagine  enough 
food  being  taken  in  through  it  to  satisfy  the  appetite 
of  a  creature  which  weighed  nearly  twenty  tons. 

But  perhaps  Diplodocus  did  not  have  a  large 
appetite.  Being  a  reptile,  he  may  have  been  cold- 
blooded and,  like  all  reptiles  now  living,  able  to  get 
along  without  food  for  days  at  a  time.  His  weak 


THE  MIGHTY   DINOSAURS  19 

and  slender  teeth,  among  which  were  no  grinders, 
were  adapted  only  to  soft  food,  and  he  undoubtedly 
lived  on  the  juicy  plants  that  were  then  so  abundant. 
For  in  those  days  the  western  portion  of  North 
America,  where  Diplodocus  made  his  home,  was  not 
a  mountainous  country.  Instead,  it  was  level  and 
made  up  largely  of  swampy  ground,  lakes,  and 
slowly  flowing  streams.  The  climate  and  vegeta- 
tion were  tropical,  and  this  was  the  case  in  all  the 
other  sections  of  the  world  where  the  Dinosaurs 
lived. 

Although  Diplodocus  was  such  an  enormous 
creature,  he  had  a  brain  that  was  not  much  bigger 
than  a  walnut.  So  he  must  have  been  as  stupid 
as  he  was  awkward.  All  the  Dinosaurs,  for  that 
matter,  seem  to  have  been  sadly  lacking  in  intelli- 
gence. The  name  Morosaurus  (Stupid  Lizard)  has 
been  given  to  one  species.  Another  species,  called 
Brontosaurus,  although  of  tremendous  size,  was  pro- 
vided with  but  a  tiny  brain.  The  man  who  named 
this  creature  Thunder  Lizard,  for  that  is  what 
Brontosaurus  means,  must  have  been  thinking  of 
the  sound  which  the  animal  made  when  he  walked, 


THE  MIGHTY  DINOSAURS  21 

and  not  of  his  voice.  For  no  one  has  any  idea 
what  sort  of  voices  were  possessed  by  the  animals 
which  lived  before  man.  If  they  were  in  proportion 
to  their  size,  it  is  fortunate  there  were  no  human 
beings  living  then  to  hear  the  fearful  din.  When 
large  numbers  of  Dinosaurs  were  together  what 
deafening  sounds  must  have  rent  the  air. 

Although  these  creatures  were  so  very  stupid  and 
were  always  at  war  with  one  another,  many  of 
them  lived  to  be  very  old.  Just  how  old  no  one 
pretends  to  say,  but  some  men  have  expressed  the 
opinion  that  the  largest  lived  for  hundreds  of  years 
and  kept  on  growing  all  the  time.  For,  as  all 
reptiles  grow  as  long  as  they  live,  and  as  the  Dino- 
saurs belonged  in  the  reptilian  class,  there  is  every 
reason  for  believing  that  each  additional  year  of 
one's  age  meant  an  increase  in  its  size. 

Probably  all  of  these  animals  could  swim  and 
lived,  for  at  least  part  of  the  time,  in  the  water. 
To  have  seen  the  gigantic  ones  traveling  back  and 
forth  through  the  streams,  stretching  their  long 
necks  upward  and  eagerly  scanning  the  shores  for 
friends  or  enemies,  would  have  been  better  sport 


THE   MIGHTY  DINOSAURS  23 

than  viewing  the  biggest  circus  procession  that 
ever  paraded  for  the  benefit  of  the  public. 

Many .  of  them  could  wade  in  deep  bodies  of 
water  and  still  keep  their  heads  above  the  surface. 
It  is  thought  that  as  they  traveled  in  this  fashion 
they  stopped  now  and  then  to  browse  on  the  vege- 
tation that  grew  beneath  the  water.  A  Dinosaur, 
having  satisfied  his  appetite  in  this  way  in  water 
twenty  or  thirty  feet  deep,  could  lift  his  head  above 
the  surface  to  get  a  breath  of  fresh  air  without 
taking  his  feet  off  the  bottom.  And  when  he  left 
the  water  and  lay  down  on  the  bank  in  the  shade 
of  the  palms  and  tall  ferns  to  take  a  nap,  he  occu- 
pied a  good  deal  of  ground  space  even  if  he  curled 
up  his  tail  and  doubled  up  his  neck.  But  if  he 
stretched  himself  out  at  full  length,  the  tip  of  his 
nose  was  some  eighty  feet  away  from  the  tip  of  his 
tail. 

Just  what  sort  of  skin  most  of  the  Dinosaurs 
had  is  not  known.  That  of  Diplodocus  is  believed 
to  have  been  thick  and  leathery.  Two  skeletons 
of  another  species  have  been  found  with  a  cover-, 
ing  which  shows  that  the  skin  remained  over  the 


24  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

bones  after  all  the  other  soft  parts  of  the  body  had 
been  destroyed.  These  skins  indicate  that  the  two 
Dinosaurs  when  living  were  covered  with  small, 
horny  scales  like  those  seen  on  the  lizards  of  to-day. 

Fierce  battles  were  fought  by  these  animals 
during  the  thousands  of  years  they  were  the  kings 
and  queens  of  the  earth.  They  not  only  had  enemies 
among  other  animals,  but  they  attacked  one  an- 
other with  intense  ferocity.  In  these  battles  the 
flesh  eaters  stood  the  best  chance  of  winning ;  fon 
while  they  were  smaller  than  many  of  the  plant  eaters 
they  were  much  stronger.  All  of  these  flesh-eating 

Dinosaurs  walked  on  their  hind  legs,  which  in  some 

/ 

species  like  the  vicious  Allosaurus  were  seven  feet 
long.  They  could  leap  and  run  with  great  rapidity 
and  after  they  had  once  caught  their  prey,  it  seldom 
escaped  them.  They  held  this  prey  in  their  grasp 
with  their  powerful  hind  legs  while  they  tore  it  to 
pieces  with  their  teeth. 

But  some  of  the  plant  eaters  were  so  hideous  that 
no  flesh-eating  Dinosaur,  however  strong,  need  have 
apologized  to  himself  for  being  frightened  when  he 
met  one  of  them.  There  was  Stegosaurus,  for  in- 


26  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

stance.  He  looked  far  worse  than  his  name  sounds, 
and  that  is  saying  a  great  deal  against  his  appearance. 
He  had  a  small  head  and  no  neck  to  speak  of; 
his  front  legs  were  so  short  that  his  nose  almost 
touched  the  ground,  yet  his  hind  legs  were  twice  as 
tall  as  a  well-grown  man.  Then  he  had  spikes  on 
his  tail,  and  hard  lumps  all  over  his  body,  down  the 
center  of  which  were  bony  crests  two  feet  long  and 
sticking  up  two  feet  high,  and  - 

But  why  tell  more  ?  Is  not  this  description  suffi- 
cient to  prove  that  Stegosaurus,  or,  to  use  his  English 
name,  Plated  Lizard,  was  ugly  enough  to  justify  even 
the  strongest  flesh-eating  Dinosaur  in  running  away 
when  he  saw  him  coming  ? 

And  then  again,  there  was  Triceratops,  the  Dino- 
saur with  the  three-horned  face,  for  that  is  what  the 
name  means.  These  horns  grew,  one  over  each  eye 
and  one  on  the  end  of  the  nose.  Around  his  neck 
this  creature  had  a  wide,  tough  frill  that  gave  him  an 
astonishing  appearance.  Hard  knobs  were  thickly 
scattered  over  his  back  and  tail,  and,  taken  alto- 
gether, Triceratops  rivaled  Stegosaurus  in  ugliness 
while  he  was  a  more  dangerous  foe  for  an  enemy  to 


THE   MIGHTY  DINOSAURS 


27 


attack.  The  use  he  could  make  of  his  horns  must 
have  worked  horrible  results,  while  the  frill  around 
his  neck  and  the  hard  knobs  on  his  body  served  him 
as  an  armor. 

But  if  his  enemy  happened  to  be  an  animal  with 
even  a  fair-sized  brain,  then  Triceratops  found  it  hard 


TRICERATOPS 

(Drawing  from  a  Model  by  Charles  Knight) 

work  to  hold  his  own  in  a  fight,  for  brains  are  gener- 
ally quite  as  necessary  in  animals  as  in  human  beings. 
Although  this  animal  with  the  three-horned  face 
was  often  twenty-five  feet  long,  ten  and  one  half  feet 


28  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

high,  and  weighed  as  much  as  ten  tons,  his  brain 
seldom  weighed  more  than  two  pounds  !  So  he  was  a 
slow-witted  creature  although  he  did  look  so  fierce. 

There  was  little  hope  for  Triceratops  or  any  other 
animal  of  his  time  when  attacked  by  Tyrannosaurus 
-the  Tyrant  Lizard  —  for,  among  all  the  flesh- 
eating  Dinosaurs  so  far  discovered,  he  was  the  largest 
and  most  vicious.  There  is  no  flesh-eating  animal 
living  to-day  nearly  as  dangerous  as  was  this  fearful 
beast.  He  was  forty  feet  in  length,  with  a  huge 
skull,  jaws  four  feet  long,  and  teeth  that  often  pro- 
jected six  inches  from  the  socket.  Triceratops  was 
no  match  for  such  a  creature  as  this.  The  very  sight 
of  his  fossilized  skull  when  it  is  seen  in  a  museum 
inspires  terror.  What,  then,  must  Tyrannosaurus 
have  been  when  alive  ! 

For  a  million  years  or  more  the  Dinosaurs  lorded 
it  over  all  the  other  land  animals  living  on  the  earth. 
We  shall  never  know  just  how  many  species  there 
were  among  them,  but  enough  have  been  discovered 
to  tell  us  that  they  varied  in  size  from  creatures  no 
larger  than  a  chicken  to  gigantic  forms.  Strange  does 
it  seem  that,  although  all  of  them  disappeared 


THE   MIGHTY  DINOSAURS  29 

millions  of  years  before  any  human  being  lived,  we 
should  know  so  much  about  them  to-day.  But  the 
human  mind  can  read  with  remarkable  clearness  the 
history  of  the  earth  as  it  is  recorded  in  the  rocks. 
And  the  Dinosaur  bones  found  buried  in  many  of 
these  rocks  furnish  some  of  the  most  interesting 
chapters  in  this  history. 


(32)  REGION   OF   ROCK   FORMED   BENEATH   WATER 

(Field  Photograph,  American  Museum  of  Natural  History) 


HOW  A  DINOSAUR  WAS  BURIED   IN 
THE   ROCK 

IN  the  days  when  the  Dinosaurs  were  at  the  height 
of  their  power,  a  Brontosaurus,  as  he  pulled  himself 
from  out  the  water  to  lie  down  on  the  shore  for 
a  rest,  was  attacked  by  a  hungry  Allosaurus.  The 
agile  flesh  eater  sprang  on  the  back  of  the  clumsy 
Brontosaurus  and  instantly  the  two  were  engaged 
in  a  terrific  battle.  For  a  while  they  fought  on  the 
soft  ground  at  the  edge  of  the  lake,  and  then  both 
fell  into  the  water,  where  they  continued  their 
struggle  with  renewed  ferocity. 

They  fought  long  and  hard,  thrashing  the  water 
with  mighty  strokes  and  uttering  fearful  sounds, 
until,  at  last,  Brontosaurus  began  to  grow  weak,  be- 
came quiet  for  a  moment,  then  sank  beneath  the 
waves.  The  victorious  Allosaurus  soon  left  the 
scene  of  the  conflict,  swimming  away  with  an  ease 
that  showed  he  had  suffered  little  injury  in  the 
fierce  encounter  through  which  he  had  just  passed. 

MKJHTY    ANIMALS  —  3  33 


34  MIGHTY   ANIMALS 

Now  it  happened  that  later  the  huge  body  of  the 
dead  Dinosaur  rose  to  the  surface  of  the  lake  and 
floated  there.  The  action  of  the  air  on  the  flesh, 
the  heat  of  the  sun,  and  the  greediness  of  many 
creatures  living  in  the  water,  caused  all  of  the  soft 
parts  of  the  body  to  disappear  leaving  only  the 
bones.  Some  of  these  were  broken  by  the  teeth  of 
ferocious  monsters  and  scattered  in  fragments, 
hither  and  thither.  But  many  other  parts  of  the 
skeleton  fell  to  the  bottom  of  the  lake,  where  they 
sank  into  the  mud. 

Because  this  mud  was  soft  and  very  thick  it 
gradually  closed  tight  over  the  bones,  making  a 
covering  for  them  through  which  the  air  could  not 
penetrate.  Had  it  been  possible  for  the  air  to  reach 
the  skeleton,  it  would  have  decayed  and  crumbled  to 
pieces.  But  the  mud  kept  every  bone  secure  from 
harm. 

Time  passed  until  all  the  animals  which  had  been 
living  when  this  Dinosaur  was  vanquished  in  his 
fight  were  dead.  Other  animals  took  their  places 
in  the  world  and  lived  out  their  lives,  and  in  their 
turn  died,  to  be  followed  by  still  other  animals.  And 


A  DINOSAUR  BURIED   IN  THE  ROCK          35 

so  life  on  this  earth  continued,  one  generation  of 
animals  succeeding  another,  until  thousands  upon 
thousands  of  centuries  had  passed.  And  all  this  time, 
the  bones  of  the  Dinosaur  lay  sealed  in  their  tomb 
at  the  bottom  of  the  lake. 

But  a  change  had  taken  place  in  that  tomb,  a 
change  so  wonderful  it  may  well  be  described  as  one 
of  Nature's  most  beautiful  miracles.  Day  after  day, 
during  all  the  tens  of  thousands  of  years  the  bones 
had  been  lying  buried,  the  earth  along  the  shores  of 
the  lake  was  being  washed  into  the  water  in  tiny 
particles  and,  in  times  of  storm,  the  streams  flowing 
into  it  were  brown  with  mud.  Large  quantities  of 
this  mud  from  the  shores  and  the  streams  settled 
to  the  bottom  of  the  lake,  and,  in  this  way,  the  cover- 
ing over  the  Dinosaur's  bones  became  deeper  with 
each  succeeding  year.  Occasionally,  also,  the  bones 
of  other  animals,  which  had  died  in  the  lake  or  had 
been  washed  into  it  after  they  had  died  on  shore, 
settled  into  the  muddy  bottom.  Even  when  twigs 
and  leaves  from  the  vegetation  growkig  along  the 
banks  fell  into  the  water  some  of  them  found  their 
way,  slowly  and  gently,  to  this  same  tomb  of  mud. 


36  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

And  all  these  bones  and  leaves  and  twigs  as  they  lay 
at  the  bottom  of  the  lake  were  covered  up  by  other 
mud  that  was  washed  into  the  water  just  as  the 
Dinosaur's  bones  had  been  covered. 

Through  all  this  time  the  miracle  was  taking  place. 
For  the  weight  of  the  water  on  the  mud  at  the  bottom 
of  the  lake  was  causing  that  mud  constantly  to 
become  a  thicker  and  harder  mass.  The  enormous 
pressure  cemented  the  tiny  particles  together  until 
they  turned  to  stone.  And  this  is  the  way  many 
rocks  in  which  bones  are  found  buried  were  formed, 
-  by  the  long-continued  pressure  of  water  on  mud, 
or  sand,  or  millions  of  tiny  shells.  Other  rocks  con- 
taining bones  were  formed  through  different  pro- 
cesses equally  mysterious,  and  always  this  marvelous 
change  was  wrought  in  some  way  by  the  action  of 
water. 

*'  But  this  changing  of  the  mud  into  stone  was  not 
all  of  the  miracle  that  took  place  in  the  Dinosaur's 
tomb.  Not  even  the  most  delicate  parts  of  his 
skeleton  were  broken  while  this  change  was  going  on. 
When  he  sank  beneath  the  waves,  this  creature's 
mouth  had  been  partly  open  and  at  the  time  that  his 


(37) 


.  Davis 


THE   DEAD   DINOSAUR   AFTER   THE   BATTLE 


38  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

skull  was  buried  in  the  mud  the  jaws  were  still 
apart,  leaving  the  teeth  exposed.  But,  although 
the  weight  of  the  water  was  sufficient  to  cement  the 
mud  into  solid  rock,  the  teeth  in  this  skull  were  not 
even  bent.  For,  just  as  rapidly  as  the  mud  had 
turned  to  stone,  so  had  the  bones  within  them  been 
changed  into  the  same  material.  How  this  could 
happen  no  one  has  ever  been  able  to  explain.  We  are 
told  that  as  the  animal  matter  in  all  such  buried  bones 
disappears,  its  place  is  taken  by  lime  and  silica,  but 
how  this  change  comes  about  we  do  not  know.  It 
remains  one  of  Nature's  many  beautiful  mysteries. 

Thus  it  was,  that,  after  countless  years,  the  bones 
of  the  Dinosaur  which  had  fought  for  its  life  in  this 
lake  were  changed  into  what  is  called  a  "fossil"  and 
lay  imbedded  in  the  solid  rock  beneath  the  water. 
All  the  other  things,  whether  they  were  bones,  or 
twigs,  or  leaves,  that  had  fallen  into  the  mud  soon 
after  the  Dinosaur  had  died,  had  been  turned  to 
fossils  also.  And  as  more  mud  was  carried  into  the 
lake  and  settled  to  the  bottom,  more  animals  and 
leaves  and  twigs  found  their  way  into  this  mud,  and, 
in  this  manner,  layer  after  layer  of  rocks  containing 


A  DINOSAUR  BURIED  IN  THE  ROCK          39 

fossils  were  formed  above  those  in  which  the  Dino- 
saur lay  buried. 

If  the  earth  had  never  changed  in  any  way,  no  one 
would  ever  have  known  that  the  mighty  Dinosaur 
was  in  this  rocky  tomb.  But  it  happens  that  the 
earth  is  ever  changing,  occasionally  because  of 
violent  earthquakes,  and  constantly  through  the 
action  of  the  waters  that  beat  against  the  shores 
and  the  effects  of  rain  and  wind,  heat  and  cold. 

So,  as  the  ages  passed,  changes  began  to  take 
place  in  this  lake.  Such  vast  quantities  of  mud  and 
sand  had  been  carried  into  it  that  the  bottom  rose 
higher  and  higher  until  the  water  that  once  had  been 
so  deep  became  very  shallow.  The  land  in  all  the 
region  round  about  was  changing  also,  and  ravines 
were  formed  through  which  the  water  from  the  lake 
ran  in  rivers.  In  this  way  all  the  water  at  last 
disappeared,  leaving  the  lake  dry.  And  by  this  time, 
through  the  upheaval  and  sinking  of  the  land,  the 
bones  of  the  Dinosaur  which  had  lost  its  life  in  the 
lake,  millions  of  years  before,  lay  buried  in  the  solid 
rock  five  thousand  feet  below  the  surface  of  the 
earth. 


40  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

No  human  being  had  yet  lived  upon  the  earth  when 
this  lake  disappeared  and  the  rock  which  had  formed 
beneath  its  waters  became  dry  land.  Many  thou- 
sands of  years  were  yet  to  pass  before  man  appeared. 
And  during  those  years  great  crevices  opened  in  the 
rock  because  the  earth  was  continually  stretching 
and  contracting,  and  deep  canons  were  cut  out  by 
the  waters.  In  other  places  huge  masses  of  rock 
were  tumbled  together  in  confused  heaps.  These 
changes  continued  until  even  that  deep  portion  of 
the  stone  where  the  Dinosaur  was  entombed  was 
exposed  to  view. 

After  the  wind  and  rain  and  sand  had  beat  against 
this  rock  for  many  centuries,  the  surface  began  to 
wear  away ;  and,  after  another  period  of  time  which 
no  man  can  rightly  estimate,  some  of  the  Dinosaur's 
bones  became  visible.  But  there  was  no  danger  of 
their  falling  from  out  the  rock,  even  if  it  broke  into 
fragments ;  for  they  were  a  part  of  the  stone,  only  a 
little  different  from  it  in  color  and  texture. 

In  many  of  the  rocks  surrounding  the  tomb  of  the 
Dinosaur  were  the  twigs  and  leaves  and  the  bones  of 
the  other  animals  which  had  fallen  into  that  ancient 


A  DINOSAUR  BURIED  IN  THE   ROCK          41 

lake  and  been  buried  at  the  bottom  and  turned  to 
fossils.  And  they  and  the  Dinosaur  would  all  be 
lying  in  those  same  rocks  to-day  were  it  not  that 
after  man  had  been  in  this  world  for  many  centu- 
ries, it  was  discovered  that  the  history  of  the  life 
that  was  lived  on  this  earth  before  human  beings 
existed  was  sealed  up  in  the  rocks  throughout  the 
world. 

Determined  to  read  this  history  through  studying 
these  rocks  and  the  secrets  buried  within  them, 
certain  men  found  a  way  to  open  the  rocks  and 
take  the  fossils  from  them  without  injury.  They 
also  learned  how  to  put  the  skeletons  of  the  animals 
together  just  as  they  were  in  life.  And  because  they 
could  do  this  it  has  come  to  pass  that  the  fossilized 
bones  of  the  Dinosaur,  which,  millions  of  years  ago, 
were  buried  at  the  bottom  of  a  lake  that  long  since 
disappeared,  have  been  made  into  a  skeleton  and 
are  on  exhibition  in  a  museum. 

How  all  this  was  done  is  another  wonderful  story. 


HOW  THE  DINOSAUR  WAS  TAKEN 
FROM  THE  ROCK 

ON  a  midsummer's  day  a  few  years  ago,  three  men 
started  out  from  a  large  museum  in  the  United  States 
to  hunt  for  fossils.  They  traveled  without  stopping 
until  they  reached  Medicine  Bow  in  Wyoming, 
which  was  the  nearest  they  could  get  to  their 
destination  by  rail;  and  here  they  immediately 
began  making  preparations  for  the  rest  of  their 
journey. 

First  they  found  a  man  who  could  cook  for  them. 
Then  they  engaged  a  couple  of  laborers  to  do  their 
heavy  work.  After  this  much  had  been  accom- 
plished, they  hired  a  wagon  with  two  strong  horses  to 
draw  it,  and  three  saddle  horses  for  themselves. 
They  also  bought  food  supplies  and  whatever  was 
necessary  for  a  camp  outfit  in  addition  to  the  things 
they  had  brought  with  them  from  the  East. 

When  everything  was  in  readiness,  the  entire 
party  started  on  the  tedious  journey  into  the  fossil 

45 


46  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

region.    The  three  men  from  the  museum  rode  horse- 
back while  the  others  found  places  in  the  wagon. 
The  weather  was  hot,  and  the  farther  they  went  the 
hotter  it  became.     The  roads  were  rough  and  dusty 
and  sometimes  little  more  than  a  trail.    When,  to- 
ward the  end  of  the  second  day,  they  came  within 
sight  of  their  goal,  they  were  thankful,  although  the 
country  was  a  barren  spot  fit  only  for  sheep  grazing. 
They  chose  for  the  site  of  their  camp  a  little  stretch 
of  grassy  ground  near  a  narrow  stream  of  water.     It 
was  not  such  water  as  they  could  have  found  in 
a  country  filled  with  verdure,  for  it  was  unpleasant 
to  the  taste  and  not  even  good  to  look  upon;   but 
it  was  the  best  there  was,  and  so  they  were  satisfied. 
Soon  the  tents  were  pitched,  after  which  a  quantity 
of  the  sagebrush,  growing  everywhere  about,  was 
gathered  for  a  fire.    As  this  brush  burns  like  tinder, 
there    was    soon    a   roaring    blaze.      Supper   was 
cooked  and  eaten  with  a  relish,  although  the  fare 
was  of  the  plainest.    By  this  time  the  sun  had  dis- 
appeared and  the  air  had  become  filled  with  a  chil- 
liness that  made  the  three  men  glad  to  sit  close  to 
the   fire,    smoking   their   pipes,   sometimes    telling 


THE  DINOSAUR  TAKEN  FROM  THE  ROCK      47 

stories  to  one  another,  then  again  falling  silent, 
watching  the  leaping  flames. 

All  round  about  were  hills,  the  rocky  sides  of  which 
were  seamed  and  jagged.  It  was  a  forbidding  land 
and  one  in  which  no  man  would  choose  to  live. 
Save  for  the  voices  of  the  men  around  the  fire,  the 
occasional  shouting  of  the  "wrangler"  as  he  cared 
for  the  horses,  and  the  frequent  yelping  of  the 
coyotes  in  the  distance,  the  whole  region  was 
silent. 

Yet  ages  before,  this  same  region  had  been  filled 
with  strange  sounds  made  by  the  voices  of  mighty 
animals.  For  this  was  the  place  where  once  had 
been  the  lake  in  which  the  great  Dinosaur  lost  his 
life  in  a  fight  with  another  of  his  kind.  And  all  the 
rocks  in  the  hills  and  ground  had  once  been  the  mud 
tfiat  lay  at  the  bottom  of  that  lake  and  in  which  the 
Dinosaur  and  many  other  creatures  had  been  en- 
tombed. 

Knowing  that  these  rocks  were  full  of  the  history 
of  past  ages,  these  three  men  had  come  out  to  search 
among  them  in  the  hope  of  finding  the  bones  of  some 
creature  which  would  add  a  new  chapter  to  that 


48  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

history.  So,  early  the  next  morning,  they  were  up 
and  about  their  work. 

Now,  the  only  way  it  can  be  known  that  a  rock  con- 
tains a  fossil  is  when  a  portion  of  that  fossil  shows  on 
the  surface  of  the  rock.  This  portion  may  be  so 
small,  and  look  so  much  like  the  rock,  that  one  not 
experienced  in  fossil  hunting  would  never  see  it. 
But  the  eye  of  the  man  accustomed  to  this  work  is  so 
trained  that  he  can  detect  the  slightest  indication  of 
a  buried  bone  as  soon  as  he  catches  sight  of  it.  As 
countless  rocks  containing  fossils  do  not  show  any 
such  indication,  and  probably  never  will,  the  crea- 
tures which  lie  buried  within  them  will  forever  re- 
main undiscovered.  It  is  very  possible  that  many 
a  picnic  lunch  has  been  merrily  eaten  off  a  rock  in 
which  a  skull,  or  a  foot,  or  some  other  portion  of 
a  gigantic  animal  is  buried,  or  perhaps  the  entire 
skeleton  of  a  smaller  creature.  Even  the  founda- 
tion stones  of  our  homes,  or  the  sidewalks  in  front 
of  them,  may  hold  the  bones  of  animals  unlike  any 
with  which  we  are  familiar  to-day. 

But  there  are  some  sections  of  the  world  where  the 
surfaces  of  many  of  the  rocks  have  worn  away  until 


THE  DINOSAUR  TAKEN  FROM  THE  ROCK      49 

the  bones  within  them  are  visible,  and  such  a  place  is 
the  region  in  Wyoming  where  these  three  men  made 
their  camp.  For  days,  however,  after  they  began 
their  search  for  fossils,  it  looked  as  though  they  were 
going  to  meet  with  nothing  but  failure.  They  hunted 
on  foot  and  they  hunted  on  horseback,  sometimes  all 
keeping  together,  sometimes  each  man  going  alone, 
but  they  found  nothing  of  enough  value  to  ship  back 
to  the  museum  that  had  sent  them  on  their  expedition. 
They  finally  decided  that  unless  a  discovery  was 
made  within  the  next  few  days,  they  would  break 
camp  and  move  to  some  other  locality  where,  per- 
haps, they  would  find  a  richer  hunting  ground. 

The  next  day  found  them  all  at  work  again,  each 
man  taking  a  separate  route.  Late  in  the  afternoon 
as  one  of  them  was  making  his  way  back  to  camp  on 
foot,  exhausted  in  body  and  discouraged  in  mind,  he 
suddenly  stopped  and  stared  at  a  rock  jutting  out  at 
the  base  of  a  bluff  on  his  right.  There,  plainly  visible 
in  the  tomb  within  which  it  had  been  sealed  many 
millions  of  years  before,  was  the  half-open  mouth  of 
the  Dinosaur  which  had  died  in  the  lake  while 
fighting  so  valiantly  for  his  life. 

MIGHTY    ANIMALS 4 


50  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

With  a  bound  the  man  reached  the  rock.  It  took 
him  but  a  short  time  to  decide  that  he  had  discovered 
the  head  of  some  gigantic  Dinosaur.  He  looked 
about  him  to  see  if  any  other  part  of  the  skeleton  was 
in  sight.  Soon  he  came  upon  a  rock  in  which  was  a 
section  of  the  backbone.  Then  he  gave  up  further 
search  and  hurried  back  to  the  camp.  There  he 
found  his  two  companions  who,  having  met  with  no 
success  in  their  day's  work,  had  concluded  that  it 
would  be  better  to  move  the  camp  the  next  morning. 
When  they  heard  the  story  of  the  third  man  they 
were  as  delighted  as  they  were  surprised  and  all 
turned  in  to  sleep  early  so  that  they  might  begin  the 
next  day's  work  in  good  season. 

The  following  morning,  soon  after  sunrise,  they 
were  at  the  spot  where  the  Dinosaur's  jaws  were 
visible,  eagerly  searching  for  more  signs  of  the  buried 
monster.  But  not  a  vestige  of  bone  could  be  seen 
aside  from  the  jaws  and  the  piece  of  backbone  the 
man  had  found  the  previous  evening.  So  the  men 
concluded  that  the  skeleton,  if  it  existed,  must 
extend  back  into  the  bluff.  The  only  way  to  find  out 
whether  or  not  they  were  correct  in  their  guess  was 


REMOVING   AND   PREPARING   FOSSILS   FOR   SHIPMENT 
(51)         (Field  Photographs,  American  Museum  of  Natural  History) 


52  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

to  dig  into  the  hillside.  This  meant  heroic  labor, 
for,  as  the  rock  was  hard  instead  of  being  somewhat 
soft,  as  is  often  the  case  with  the  rock  in  which 
Dinosaurs  are  found  buried,  the  cutting  away  of 
the  stone  was  a  difficult  undertaking. 

After  the  rock  containing  the  skull  had  been 
loosened  from  the  hillside  and  signs  of  other  bones 
were  revealed,  the  men  felt  reasonably  confident  that 
a  large  part  of  the  Dinosaur's  skeleton  would  be  found 
extending  back  into  the  bluff.  To  get  it  all  out  would 
mean  at  least  a  year  of  work  and  perhaps  two  years. 
So  preparations  were  made  for  a  long  stay  in  this 
desolate  region,  where  there  was  no  hope  of  their 
seeing  any  other  human  beings  except  an  occasional 
sheep  herder  or  cowboy.  Two  men  were  sent  back  to 
Medicine  Bow  to  get  some  extra  supplies  and  mail 
a  report  of  the  discovery  to  the  museum.  Soon  after 
this  every  man  in  the  party  had  settled  down  to  his 
long  task. 

Presently  it  was  found  that  it  would  be  necessary 
to  make  a  tunnel  into  the  bluff  in  order  to  reach  the 
bones.  Knowing  from  past  experience  that  such  a 
method  might  have  to  be  adopted,  the  men  had 


THE  DINOSAUR  TAKEN  FROM  THE  ROCK      53 

brought  gunpowder  with  them,  and  as  every  collec- 
tor is  expected  to  know  how  to  blast,  the  tunnel 
was  soon  being  opened  up. 

As  the  work  progressed  a  drawing  was  made  by  the 
head  man  of  the  party  that  showed  the  location  of 
every  rock  before  it  was  taken  from  the  bluff.  Then, 
as  each  piece  of  rock  was  removed,  strips  of  burlap 
wet  in  plaster  of  Paris  were  wrapped  around  it,  and 
after  the  plaster  had  dried,  the  burlap  made  a  safe 
covering  for  the  stone.  As  soon  as  a  rock  had  been 
thus  protected  it  was  numbered  in  the  order  in  which 
it  had  been  found  among  the  other  rocks.  This  was 
done  so  that  when  the  men  in  the  museum  unpacked 
these  various  rocks,  they  could  put  them  together 
according  to  the  numbers,  number  two  joining 
number  one,  number  three  joining  number  two,  and 
in  this  way  the  rocks  would  be  laid  out  in  the  museum 
in  the  same  position  in  which  they  had  been  dis- 
covered. 

While  working  their  way  into  the  bluff  the  men  did 
not,  of  course,  find  the  bones  of  the  Dinosaur  arranged 
just  as  they  had  been  in  life.  As  some  of  them  had 
been  torn  from  the  skeleton  by  vicious  creatures 


54  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

when  it  floated  on  the  surface  of  the  lake  millions  of 
years  before,  and  as  these  pieces  had  been  carried 
far  off  and  lost,  the  entire  skeleton  could  never  be 
found.  But,  considering  the  devastation  that  is 
always  wrought  by  living  creatures  in  all  such 
skeletons  before  they  are  buried,  and  the  many 
changes  that  occur  in  the  earth  after  their  burial, 
the  bones  of  this  Dinosaur  were  discovered  in  unu- 
sually good  shape. 

Slowly,  but  surely,  the  bluff  was  made  to  yield  up 
to  man  this  animal  which  had  died  ages  before  any 
man  had  lived.  To  recount  all  that  it  was  necessary 
to  do  in  order  to  recover  the  skeleton  would  be  to  tell 
of  many  months  in  which  every  day  was  filled  with 
the  hardest  kind  of  labor.  Some  of  the  rock  was 
removed  in  sections  that  weighed  two  tons;  and  to 
handle  these  was  a  serious  undertaking  when  the 
tools  and  appliances  at  hand  were  not  many. 

But  there  came  a  day,  about  a  year  after  the 
Dinosaur  had  been  found,  when  it  was  decided  that 
all  of  the  skeleton  which  was  in  that  locality  was 
unearthed.  After  every  piece  of  rock  had  been 
wrapped  and  numbered  and  then  securely  boxed,  the 


TAKING    THE    FOSSIL   FROM   THE   BLUFF 
(Field  Photograph,  American  Museum  of  Natural  History) 


56  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

work  of  transferring  the  boxes  to  Medicine  Bow 
began.  It  took  many  trips  of  the  wagon  before  this 
task  was  accomplished.  Back  and  forth  in  the  blaz- 
ing sun,  went  the  sturdy  horses  patiently  pulling  the 
load  that  contained  the  skeleton  of  a  creature  which, 
long  before  any  kind  of  a  horse  had  lived,  was  mon- 
arch of  this  very  region.  Finally  all  the  boxes  were 
safely  packed  in  a  freight  car,  and  then  the  Dinosaur 
started  on  his  long  journey. 

The  train  sped  swiftly  eastward,  through  a  country 
far  different  from  anything  in  existence  during  the 
Dinosaur's  lifetime,  and  when,  at  last,  the  engine 
pulled  the  car  containing  the  bones  of  this  ex-monarch 
into  the  station  of  the  city  which  was  thereafter  to  be 
his  home,  he  had  traveled  more  than  two  thousand 
miles. 

Although  the  Dinosaur  was  so  unlike  any  animal 
which  any  person  had  ever  seen  alive,  the  men  into 
whose  charge  the  rocks  containing  his  bones  were 
given  when  they  reached  the  museum  knew  a  great 
deal  about  how  he  had  looked  in  life.  Soon  they 
were  at  work  getting  the  pieces  of  rock  in  order  so 
that  the  bones  could  be  taken  from  them.  All 


THE  DINOSAUR  TAKEN  FROM  THE  ROCK      57 

these  pieces  were  arranged  according  to  the  numbers 
with  which  they  were  marked.  As  each  rock  was  put 
into  its  place  the  diagram  made  by  the  man  in  the 
field  was  consulted.  Every  rock  fitted  just  as  the 
diagram  showed  it  should,  and  this  proved  that  the 
work  of  collecting  had  been  well  done.  Sometimes 
a  collector  is  careless  in  this  part  of  his  work,  and 
this  carelessness  not  only  makes  endless  trouble  for 
those  who  take  the  bones  from  the  rock,  but  injures 
the  collector's  reputation  as  well. 

And  now,  at  last,  the  men  were  ready  to  free  the 
skeleton  from  the  rock,  a  work  that  would  require 
from  one  to  three  years  to  accomplish,  according  to 
the  difficulties  they  should  meet  as  they  progressed. 
Only  men  who  knew  the  formation  of  the  bones  of 
the  Dinosaur  as  well  as  a  surgeon  knows  the  forma- 
tion of  the  bones  in  the  human  body,  could  be  trusted 
with  this  undertaking.  But,  as  there  were  in  this 
museum  some  of  the  most  capable  men  in  the  world 
in  this  sort  of  work,  there  was  no  delay  in  beginning 
the  task  of  taking  the  Dinosaur  from  his  tomb. 

Carefully,  with  delicate  strokes  of  various-sized 
hammers  on  various-sized  chisels,  the  men  chipped 


58  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

the  rock  away  from  the  fossil.  The  man  who 
worked  on  the  rock  in  which  nothing  was  visible 
but  the  grinning  jaws  knew  that  he  would  be  likely 
to  find  all  of  the  Dinosaur's  skull  within  the  stone. 
But  how  was  he  to  get  this  skull  out  without  breaking 
it  with  his  chisel?  He  could  avoid  this  disaster 
because  he  knew  so  well  how  the  bones  in  the  heads 
of  different  Dinosaurs  are  shaped.  The  position  of 
the  jaw  helped  him  to  understand  where  the  rest 
of  the  head  lay.  Of  course,  this  head  might  be  found 
in  a  shattered  condition,  and  if  so,  he  would  be 
obliged  to  work  all  the  more  cautiously  in  order  to 
recover  every  fragment  so  that  after  all  the  bones 
had  been  freed  from  the  rock,  they  could  be  cemented 
together  into  a  skull. 

But  this  Dinosaur's  head  proved  to  be  remarkably 
well  preserved,  without  a  bone  displaced.  It  took 
many  weeks  to  get  it  from  the  rock,  but,  as  the 
stone  was  chipped  off,  a  little  more  each  day,  the 
skull  emerged  farther  and  farther  from  its  tomb  and 
took  on  an  appearance  of  life  that  was  thrilling  to 
watch.  There  was  a  fierceness  in  the  set  of  the 
open  jaws  that  spoke  of  this  creature's  violent  sensa- 


THE  DINOSAUR  TAKEN  FROM  THE  ROCK      59 

tions  as  he  went  down  to  death.  And  when,  nearly 
two  years  later,  all  of  the  skeleton  had  been  taken 
from  the  rock,  marks  were  found  upon  it  showing 
where  the  teeth  of  his  enemy  had  pierced  the  Dino- 
saur to  the  bone. 

While  chipping  the  skeleton  from  its  tomb  the 
men  had  occasionally  come  across  pieces  of  bone 
that  once  were  parts  of  other  animals  which  had 
been  buried  in  the  mud  at  the  bottom  of  the  lake 
about  the  same  time  that  the  Dinosaur  was  buried. 
They  also  found  some  of  the  twigs  and  leaves  that 
had  fallen  into  the  lake  and  had  been  turned  to  fossils 
in  the  same  mud.  All  these  bones  and  twigs  and 
leaves  made  it  possible  for  them  to  know  what  kind 
of  vegetation  grew  on  the  shores  of  the  lake  in  which 
the  Dinosaur  had  died,  and  also  something  about 
the  animals  which  were  his  neighbors. 

The  character  of  all  these  fossils  and  the  formation 
of  the  rocks  that  contained  them,  as  well  as  the 
position  of  those  rocks  in  the  bluff  in  which  they 
were  found,  all  helped  the  men  who  worked  over 
this  Dinosaur  to  gain  an  idea  of  how  long  a  time  had 
passed  since  his  death.  To  be  able  to  judge  of  the 


60  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

age  of  fossils  is  in  itself  a  science  and  one  which  is 
every  year  advancing. 

After  all  the  bones  of  the  Dinosaur  had  been  freed 
from  their  prisons,  there  was  still  much  to  do  before 
the  skeleton  could  be  put  together.  Certain  parts 
were  missing  and  these  had  to  be  made  out  of  plaster 
of  Paris.  Some  of  the  ribs  on  one  side  were  lacking, 
but  it  was  not  a  difficult  matter  to  replace  them 
with. artificial  ones  exactly  like  the  ribs  on  the  other 
side.  As  there  was  but  one  hind  foot,  another  was 
made  to  match  it.  A  portion  of  one  of  the  front 
legs  had  to  be  pieced  out ;  but  there  was  less  of  such 
work  to  be  done  on  this  skeleton  than  is  usually  the 
case  with  such  large  specimens. 

All  the  necessary  pieces  having  been  supplied,  the 
men  put  the  skeleton  together  just  as  it  had  been  in 
life.  Their  knowledge  of  living  animals  was  an  aid 
to  them  in  this  part  of  their  work,  for,  while  this 
Dinosaur  was  different  from  any  animal  ever  seen  by 
man,  he  still  had  a  head  and  neck,  a  backbone  and  a 
tail,  legs  and  feet,  and  these  were  joined  together 
much  after  the  manner  of  living  animals.  So,  the 
more  a  man  who  prepares  one  of  these  fossil  skeletons 


62  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

for  exhibition  knows  about  the  skeletons  of  living 
creatures,  the  better  skilled  is  he  in  his  work. 

Piece  by  piece  the  bones  of  this  monarch  of  other 
days  were  adjusted  until  at  last  he  stood  upright  on 
his  huge  feet,  his  body  more  than  twice  as  tall  as  the 
tallest  man  and  over  seventy  feet  in  length.  Iron 
braces  were  used  to  support  the  monster  when  he  was 
placed  on  a  platform  in  the  main  exhibition  room  of 
the  museum. 

Thus  it  was  that  the  bones  of  the  Dinosaur 
which  had  been  killed  ages  before  any  human 
being  lived  found  a  home  in  a  great  city  where 
each  year  many  thousands  of  people  would  look  at 
him  with  amazement.  And  all  round  about  him  in 
this  same  museum  were  the  skeletons  of  other  ani- 
mals which  had  lived  before  man.  Some  of  them 
had  made  their  homes  on  the  land,  some  in  the  air, 
some  in  the  water.  Many  among  them  had  been 
rulers  in  their  time  just  as  had  the  Dinosaur  in  his. 
And  how  these  rulers  looked  when  alive,  and  where 
they  lived,  and  how  they  were  at  last  found  in  their 
rocky  tombs,  are  stories  well  worth  the  telling. 


(64) 


Restoration  by  Charles  Knight 


ICHTHYOSAURS 
(After  H.  F.  Osborn.     Original  in  American  Museum  of  Natural  History) 


DESPOTS  OF  THE  SEAS 

DURING  the  same  time  that  the  Dinosaurs  were  the 
tyrants  of  the  land  the  seas  also  had  their  despots 
and  among  the  mightiest  of  these  was  the  Ichthyo- 
saur  or  Fish-Lizard,  to  call  him  by  his  English 
name. 

Like  the  seas  of  to-day,  those  in  which  the  Ich- 
thyosaurs  swam  were  a  world  in  themselves.  Their 
population  was  made  up  of  many  kinds  of  creatures, 
big  and  little,  weak  and  strong,  all  of  which  had  to 
find  their  own  food.  So  they  ate  one  another,  and 
sad  was  the  fate  of  the  weak  and  timid  among  them. 
Immense  quantities  of  fishes  were,  we  may  be  sure, 
devoured  by  the  greedy  Ichthyosaur,  and  he  must 
have  caught  his  prey  rather  easily,  for  he  was  the 
swiftest  swimmer  of  his  time.  Although  he  had  two 
pairs  of  paddles,  his  broad  and  strong  tail  was  the 
chief  means  by  which  he  propelled  himself  through 
the  water  at  express- train  speed.  And  terrible  was 

MIGHTY    ANIMALS  —  5  65 


66  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

the  fate  of  any  creature  unfortunate  enough  to  get 
in  his  way. 

There  was  once  a  man  who,  in  trying  to  describe 
an  Ichthyosaur,  wrote  this  jingle :  - 

"  Behold  a  strange  monster  our  wonder  engages, 

If  dolphin  or  lizard  your  wit  may  defy, 
Some  thirty  feet  long  on  the  shore  of  Lyme-Regis, 

With  a  saw  for  a  jaw  and  a  big  staring  eye. 
A  fish  or  a  lizard  ?    An  Ichthyosaurus, 

With  a  big  goggle  eye  and  a  very  small  brain, 
And  paddles  like  mill-wheels  in  clattering  chorus, 

Smiting  tremendous  the  dread-sounding  main." 

We  may  know  from  this  that  the  Ichthyosaur  was 
not  a  pretty  object  to  look  at  and  that  he  was  a 
creature  of  gigantic  size  and  strength. 

This  mighty  Fish-Lizard  had  immense  eyes,  round 
and  glaring,  and  an  enormous  jaw  that  sometimes 
contained  as  many  as  two  hundred  and  forty  sharp 
teeth.  But  this  jaw  was  only  a  part  of  his  fearful 
head  which  was  frequently  five  and  a  half  feet  in 
length.  Other  Ichthyosaurs,  even  when  full  grown, 
did  not  measure  more  than  this  from  the  tip  of  the 
tail  to  the  end  of  the  jaw,  and  it  is  quite  possible 


DESPOTS  OF  THE  SEAS  67 

that  the  big  Ichthyosaurs  often  made  a  meal  of 
these  small  relations  of  theirs.  We  would  hardly 
call  a  fish  five  feet  long  small  if  we  tried  to  eat  it ;  but 
to  the  voracious  Ichthyosaurs,  a  creature  of  this  size 
probably  seemed  nothing  more  than  a  light  lunch. 

All  of  the  Ichthyosaurs,  large  and  small,  are 
believed  to  have  had  a  smooth  skin,  for  no  scales 
have  ever  been  found  lying  near  any  of  their  skele- 
tons. Large  numbers  of  these  skeletons  have  been 
discovered  and  are  now  to  be  seen  in  museums 
throughout  the  world.  But  it  was  a  long  time 
after  the  first  Ichthyosaur  was  dug  out  of  the  rocks 
some  two  hundred  years  ago,  before  any  one  could 
make  out  what  sort  of  creature  it  was.  Then, 
about  the  year  1814,  it  was  learned  that  the  bones 
were  those  of  some  monster  which  had  lived  in  the 
water  millions  of  years  before  the  time  of  man. 

It  is  thought  that  the  Ichthyosaur  was  descended 
from  some  land  animal.  For  we  know  that  as  the 
earth  slowly  changed  in  its  climate  and  vegeta- 
tion, the  animals  living  upon  it  had  to  change 
their  habits.  The  species  which  were  not  able 
to  do  this  gradually  died  off  until  they  entirely 


68  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

disappeared.  But  other  species  which  were  more 
fortunate  lived  through  these  changes,  although, 
in  doing  so,  their  whole  manner  of  life  was  altered 
and  also  their  forms.  When  some  of  the  land  ani- 
mals could  no  longer  get  enough  to  eat  on  the 
land,  they  found  food  in  the  water  and,  after  many 
generations,  became  water  animals.  Some  of  the 
ancestors  of  the  Ichthyosaur  were  probably  thus 
driven  from  the  land  to  keep  themselves  from 
starvation.  This  was  what  happened  to  the  ances- 
tors of  the  whale  and  seal  of  to-day,  for  these 
creatures  are  descended  from  land  animals.  But 
it  took  centuries  upon  centuries  for  land  animals  to 
become  so  adapted  to  the  water  that  they  could 
live  in  it  entirely. 

When  in  the  full  glory  of  their  power,  the  Ich- 
thyosaurs  swarmed  in  the  waters  of  Europe,  India, 
Australia,  New  Zealand,  and  the  east  coast  of 
Africa ;  but  they  were  not  so  numerous  in  America. 
Yet,  mighty  as  they  were,  they  did  not  maintain 
their  position  as  rulers  of  all  these  waters  without 
some  trouble;  for  they  had  many  dangerous  en- 
emies, among  which  were  the  Plesiosaurs. 


DESPOTS  OF  THE  SEAS  69 

The  Plesiosaur  did  not  look  at  all  like  the  Ich- 
thyosaur.  He  had  a  thick  body,  short  tail,  four 
very  strong  and  large  paddles,  a  remarkably  long 
neck,  and  a  small  flat  head  somewhat  like  that  of  a 
snake.  Some  one  once  said  that  this  creature  looked 
like  a  snake  threaded  through  the  body  of  a  turtle. 
But  the  name  given  him  is  in  no  way  connected 
with  snakes  or  turtles,  for  Plesiosaur  means  "near 
to  a  lizard." 

When  swimming,  the  Plesiosaur  could  stretch  his 
long  neck  far  above  the  water;  and  many  a  little 
flying  creature  which  happened  to  come  within 
reach  of  his  cruel,  toothed  jaws  met  a  quick  death. 
When  his  head  was  below  the  surface  he  could  twist 
his  neck  in  all  directions,  looking  for  enemies,  and 
this  gave  him  an  advantage  over  the  Ichthyosaur, 
which  had  a  very  short  neck.  But,  when  it  came 
to  a  downright  fight  between  the  two,  the  Ichthyo- 
saur had  the  advantage,  for  he  was  swifter  in  his 
movements  than  the  Plesiosaur  and  stronger  of 
muscle.  Yet  he  did  not  always  win  the  battle, 
although  when  he  charged  upon  his  foe  with  jaws 
set  ready  -to  sink  those  two  hundred  forty  teeth 


70  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

into  him,  things  must  have  looked  bad  for  the 
Plesiosaur.  Great  was  the  commotion  when  the 
two  met,  nor  would  either  give  up  the  combat 
until  one  was  dead.  For  they  were  both  mighty 
creatures,  and  each  was  determined  to  be  king  of 
all  the  animals  then  living  in  the  water. 

There  came  a  time,  however,  when  both  the 
Ichthyosaurs  and  the  Plesiosaurs  began  to  dis- 
appear. Then  the  sea  serpents  became  the  rulers 
of  the  waters  throughout  the  world.  Nowadays  no 
one  believes  in  sea  serpents,  and  a  sailor  who  claims 
he  has  seen  one  is  laughed  at.  But  millions  of 
years  ago,  if  there  had  been  any  sailors  living,  they 
might  have  seen  large  numbers  of  such  serpents 
from  six  to  forty  feet  in  length,  wherever  they 
happened  to  sail.  They  would  have  seen  more  of 
them  in  America  than  in  any  other  'country,  and 
especially  in  the  seas  that  then  covered  Kansas 
and  Nebraska.  And  the  waters  that  filled  the 
space  now  occupied  by  New  Jersey,  Alabama, 
North  Carolina,  and  Mississippi  were  also  inhabited 
by  these  serpents,  but  not  in  such  large  numbers 
as  were  the  western  waters. 


(71)  •        Restoration  by  Charles  Kniyht  . 

MOSASAUR 

(After  H.  F.  Osborn.     Original  in  American- Museum  of  Natural  History) 


72  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

The  name  Mosasaur  has  been  given  these  crea- 
tures because  it  was  in  Belgium,  in  the  valley  of  the 
river  Meuse,  that  the  first  one  was  discovered. 
The  words  Meuse  and  "saurus,"  which  is  Greek 
for  lizard,  were  made  into  Mosasaur.  Some  work- 
men who  were  blasting  the  rocks  underneath  one 
of  the  mountains  in  this  region  were  astounded 
when,  after  they  had  set  off  a  blast  in  a  cavern, 
they  saw  the  jaws  of  some  animal  imbedded  in 
the  roof.  They  immediately  reported  their  dis- 
covery, and  a  Dutch  military  surgeon  who  was 
interested  in  collecting  fossils  hurried  to  the  spot. 
He  knew  in  a  short  time  that  the  bones  were  those 
of  some  animal  different  from  any  then  living. 
Soon  he  had  men  at  work  removing  the  precious 
discovery  and  was  overjoyed  to  find  that  almost 
an  entire  skeleton  was  buried  in  the  rock.  The 
bones  were  taken  to  the  near-by  city  of  Maestricht, 
where  they  were  received  with  great  enthusiasm. 
It  was  not  long  before  the  fame  of  this  fossil  spread 
over  Europe,  and  the  people  of  Maestricht  felt 
very  proud  to  have  it  in  their  possession. 

Twenty-four   years   later,    in    1794,    during    the 


DESPOTS  OF  THE  SEAS  73 

i 

French  Revolution,  the  French,  under  Kleber,  be- 
sieged Maestricht.  But  orders  were  given  not  to 
fire  on  the  building  that  contained  the  Mosasaur. 
Kleber  was  determined  to  take  this  celebrated 
fossil  back  to  France  with  him,  and  he  was  anxious 
that  it  should  not  be  injured  during  the  bombard- 
ment. After  he  had  captured  the  town,  he  de- 
manded the  skeleton  as  one  of  the  prizes  of  victory. 
There  was  nothing  for  the  Maestricht  authorities 
to  do  but  to  give  up  the  cherished  treasure,  and 
Kleber  carried  it  off  in  triumph  to  Paris,  where  it 
still  remains  and  is  one  of  the  most  valued  exhibits 
in  the  zoological  gardens. 

When  this  Mosasaur  was  alive  he  had  a  long, 
snakelike  body  covered  with  scales,  a  long  tail, 
and  a  slender  flat  head.  His  jaws  opened  very 
wide,  and  his  throat  was  so  baggy  that  he  could 
swallow  his  food  whole.  When,  in  his  greediness, 
he  put  too  much  in  his  mouth  at  once,  he  used  his 
under  jaw  as  though  it  were  an  arm  and  pushed 
the  food  down  his  throat.  By  extending  the  arms 
at  full  length  with  the  palms  of  the  hands  touching 
and  then  bending  the  elbows  in  and  out  one  can 


74  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

•,  ** 

gain  a  very  good  idea  of  how  this  jaw  worked. 
Then,  to  make  matters  worse  for  his  prey,  the 
Mosasaur  had  many  sharp  teeth.  So  what  chance 
of  escape  did  any  fish  have  when  once  he  had  been 
captured  by  this  sea  serpent? 

Although  the  Mosasaur  was  provided  with  four 
paddles,  which  he  used  in  swimming,  two  on  each 
side  of  his  body,  his  tail  was  the  engine  on  which 
he  relied  for  speed.  As  he  made  his  way  with 
lightning-like  rapidity  through  the  water,  now 
gliding  straight  ahead,  now  twisting  and  turning, 
now  diving  suddenly  toward  the  bottom,  then 
rushing  up  again  to  the  surface,  all  creatures  of  less 
strength  must  have  hastened  to  their  hiding  places. 
Even  the  gigantic  turtles  which  were  living  in  those 
same  waters  very  likely  made  it  a  point  to  get  out 
of  the  way  when  they  saw  a  Mosasaur  headed  in 
their  direction. 

And  a  greater  panic  than  this  must  have  seized 
all  these  creatures  when  an  Elasmosaur  got  angry 
or  started  out  on  a-  search  for  a  meal.  For  the 
Elasmosaur  was  even  longer  and  mightier  than  the 
Mosasaur,  which  he  closely  resembled,  although  he 


Restoration  by  Charles  Knight 


ELASMOSAUR 
(After  H.  F.  Osborn.     Original  in  American  Museum  of  Natural  History) 


76  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

was  really  a  distant  relative  of  the  Plesiosaur.  So 
powerful  was  this  creature  that  wherever  he  went 
he  left  destruction  in  his  path. 

When  a  number  of  Mosasaurs  or  Elasmosaurs 
got  together  to  fight  or  to  frolic  there  must  have 
been  a  tremendous  splashing.  But  they  fought 
far  more  than  they  frolicked,  for  in  those  days  life 
was  one  constant  warfare  in  which  the  big  animals 
battled  to  keep  their  positions  as  rulers,  and  the 
smaller  ones  to  save  themselves  from  utter  destruc- 
tion. 

Then,  after  a  time,  all  these  sea  monsters  com- 
pletely disappeared.  Even  the  waters  in  which 
they  lived  have  vanished  and  in  place  of  them  are 
cities  and  towns,  villages  and  farmlands.  And  so, 
to-day,  people  by  the  thousands  are  living  where 
once  these  despots  made  their  homes. 


REPTILES 


C78)  Restoration  by  Clement  It.  Dttri* 

PTERODACTYLS   SEEKING   FOOD   ON  THE   CLIFFS 


THE   FLYING   REPTILES 

AMONG  the  many  wonderful  creatures  flying 
through  the  air  in  those  days  when  there  were  no 
people  in  the  world  were  the  reptiles  called  Ptero- 
dactyls. The  outspread  wings  of  the  largest  of 
these  monsters  measured  twenty  feet  from  tip  to 
tip.  No  animal  has  ever  flown  through  the  air 
since  man  lived  on  earth  which  could  compare  with 
this  in  size. 

Even  the  bravest  among  the  Dinosaurs  must 
have  felt  some  fear  when  he  saw  one  of  these  gigan- 
tic creatures  hovering  over  his  head.  And  a  Plesio- 
saur,  swimming  with  his  neck  stretched  far  above 
the  water,  probably  had  cause  for  watching  warily 
when  a  big  Pterodactyl  came  near  him.  For, 
although  these  flying  reptiles  did  not  eat  the  big 
land-and-water  animals,  we  may  be  sure  they  were 
quite  ready  at  times  to  do  battle  with  them. 

Some  of  these  mighty  rulers  of  the  air  had  long 

79 


80  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

and  narrow  heads  ending  in  beaks  a  foot  and  a 
half  in  length.  These  Pterodactyls  were  toothless, 
but  others  with  short  heads  and  beaks  had  very 
sharp  teeth,  which  they  put  to  cruel  use  when  fight- 
ing as  well  as  when  catching  the  small  animals  on 
which  they  fed.  However,  not  all  of  the  Pterodac- 
tyls were  large.  They  varied  greatly  in  size,  some 
being  no  bigger  than  crows.  But  they,  every  one, 
had  four  legs,  each  ending  in  four  fingers,  and  be- 
cause the  outside  finger  of  each  front  leg  was  fas- 
tened to  the  wing  and  grew  its  entire  length,  these 
creatures  were  named  Wing-Fingered — only,  instead 
of  using  the  English  words,  men  have  taken  two 
Greek  words,  "pteron"  (wing)  and  "dactylos" 
(finger),  and  made  the  name  Pterodactyl. 

The  eyes  of  these  flying  reptiles  were  so  large  it 
is  thought  they  may  have  gone  about  mostly  at 
night,  as  do  the  bats  and  owls  of  to-day.  But 
whether  the  long-necked,  long-headed  Pterodactyl 
went  about  by  night  or  by  day,  it  was  easy  for 
him  to  see  in  all  directions  without  turning  his 
bqdy.  If  he  suspected  that  he  was  being  followed 
by  an  enemy,  he  could  look  behind  him  without 


THE   FLYING  REPTILES  81 

for  a  moment  stopping  his  rapid  flight  forward. 
This  was  because  his  neck  was  so  flexible  he  could 
twist  it  around  until  the  tip  of  his  beak  pointed 
straight  toward  the  tip  of  his  tail.  For  Ptero- 
dactyls had  tails,  some  of  which  were  very  long, 
others  very  short,  and  many  of  medium  length. 
The  long  tails  suddenly  broadened  at  the  end  inta 
a  shape  like  that  of  a  leaf.  This  would  lead  one  to 
think  that  they  were  used  as  rudders  in  flying. 
As  he  traveled  through  the  air  the  long-tailed 
Pterodactyl  must  have  been  an  alarming  sight 
with  his  wicked-looking  head,  his  wings  spreading 
out  on  either  side  of  his  bat-like  body,  and  his  tail 
stretching  far  behind  him. 

If  such  a  Pterodactyl  was  a  terrifying  sight 
when  flying,  he  must  surely  have  been  a  laughable 
one  when  on  the  land.  For  there  seems  to  have 
been  no  way  for  him  to  walk  about  except  on  his 
hind  legs,  with  his  great  head  curved  far  backward 
so  as  to  keep  his  balance.  If  he  covered  the  ground 
very  rapidly  while  in  this  position,  he  was  certainly 
more  intelligent  than  he  looked.  But  he  probably 
did  not  descend  to  land  for  the  sake  of  running 

MIGHTY    ANIMALS  —  6 


82  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

about,  but  rather  that  he  might  crawl  around  in 
search  of  small  animals  to  eat,  and  in  the  thou- 
sands of  insects  flitting  back  and  forth  he  found 
plenty  of  daintier  food.  He  may,  also,  now  and 
then,  have  foraged  for  a  meal  of  birds'  eggs  up 
and  down  the  sides  of  cliffs  to  which  he  could  cling 
with  the  sharp  claws  on  the  ends  of  his  fingers. 

But  it  is  supposed  that  the  Pterodactyl  fed 
mostly  on  the  fishes  with  which  the  lakes  and  seas 
abounded.  Greedily  he  hovered  over  the  water, 
watching  until  a  fish  ventured  too  near  the  surface. 
Then  down  would  swoop  the  monster  to  snap  up 
his  victim  in  his  savage  beak.  Or,  at  other  times, 
he  may  have  rowed  himself  over  the  water  with  his 
powerful  wings,  using  the  wing  membrane,  as  does  the 
bat,  to  grasp  his  prey  and  carry  it  to  his  mouth. 
But,  to  judge  from  his  weight,  the  Pterodactyl  was 
not  a  very  large  eater.  One  species,  the  head  of  which 
alone  measured  nearly  four  feet  in  length,  did  not 
weigh  more  than  twenty-five  pounds,  and  his  largest 
finger  bones,  although  two  feet  long  and  six  inches 
in-  circumference,  were  almost  as  thin  as  paper ! 

No  one  knows  just  how  the  Pterodactyls  raised 


84  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

their  families.  Perhaps  they  built  nests  in  which 
to  hatch  their  eggs,  or  they  may  have  buried  the 
eggs  in  the  sand  where  they  were  hatched  by  the 
sun.  Some  day  we  shall  probably  learn  more  about 
the  family  life  of  these  strange  creatures,  for  their 
bones  are  continually  being  found  and  studied. 

It  was  in  Bavaria,  in  the  year  1784,  that  the  first 
bones  were  discovered.  But  no  one  could  make  out 
whether  they  were  part  of  an  animal  which  had  lived 
on  the  land,  in  the  water,  or  in  the  air.  Then,  twenty- 
five  years  later,  these  bones  were  examined  by  Cuvier, 
the  celebrated  French  naturalist,  and  he  was  able  to 
prove  that  they  belonged  to  some  extraordinary  flying 
creature.  Since  then  it  has  been  learned  that  these 
winged  reptiles  made  their  homes  in  nearly  every 
part  of  the  world,  but  they  lived  in  Europe  many 
centuries  before  they  found  their  way  to  America. 
Just  how  they  got  here  no  one  can  tell,  but  once  they 
had  arrived,  they  increased  greatly  in  size  and  num- 
bers. They  lived  around  the  inland  sea  that  was 
then  part  of  the  western  United  States,  and  in  Kansas 
their  bones  have  been  found  in  abundance. 

Nor  were  the  Pterodactyls  the  only  creatures  flying 


THE   FLYING  REPTILES  85 

around  that  western  sea.  There  were  birds,  similar 
to  those  now  living,  and  there  were  also  other  very 
queer  birds  with  teeth.  Then  there  were  myriads  of 
insects  like  dragon  flies,  locusts,  and  moths.  But  as 
long  as  they  lived,  the  Pterodactyls  held  undisputed 
sway  over  all  other  inhabitants  of  the  air  the  world 
over. 

What  a  scene  it  must  have  been  upon  which  these 
mighty  rulers  looked  down  as  they  flew  hither  and 
thither !  Great  stretches  of  water,  in  which  swam 
sea  serpents  and  other  astonishing  forms;  swampy 
expanses  of  land,  over  which  Dinosaurs  walked  by 
the  thousands  and  gigantic  crocodiles  and  tortoises 
crawled.  And  amid  all  this  teeming  life  there  was 
not  one  human  being. 


iliCERAS  jB&a 

cSKSSmA 


wt&S.'  "Sa^R^E 


THE  LITTLE-BRAINED   DINOCERAS 

ALL  of  the  Dinosaurs  and  Ichthyosaurs,  the 
Plesiosaurs,  the  sea  serpents,  and  the  flying  reptiles, 
had  been  dead  for  hundreds  of  thousands  of  years 
when  a  mighty  animal  different  from  any  which  had 
ever  lived  before  appeared  in  the  western  part  of  the 
United  States.  Nor  is  anything  like  it  living  now. 

Because  he  had  six  horns  on  his  head  this  animal 
has  been  called  Dinoceras  .which  is  Greek  for  Terrible 
Horn.  These  horns,  which  were  something  like 
knobs,  were  arranged  in  pairs.  The  smallest  pair 
stood  on  top  of  the  nose,  the  second  pair  a  little 
behind  them,  while  the  third  and  largest  pair  was  at 
the  very  back  of  the  head.  And  then,  in  addition 
to  all  these  unbecoming  decorations,  the  Dinoceras 
had  two  enormous  teeth  in  his  upper  jaw  that  grew 
downward  like  tusks.  They  were  exceedingly  sharp 
and  often  seven  or  eight  inches  in  length. 

But  there  was  something  about  this  beast  much 
more  curious  than  the  horns  and  tusks  he  carried 

89 


90  MIGHTY   ANIMALS 

on  the  outside  of  his  head.  This  was  the  brain  he 
carried  inside  of  it.  For  the  Dinoceras  had  the  small- 
est brain  in  proportion  to  his  size  of  any  land  animal 
so  far  known.  The  body  of  a  man  weighs  only 
thirty-five  times  as  much  as  his  brain.  The  body  of 
the  Dinoceras  was  four  thousand  times  heavier  than 
his  brain.  What  a  stupid  creature  he  must  have 
been !  Probably  he  was  provided  with  his  horns 
and  his  tusks  so  that  he  could  protect  himself  against 
the  attacks  of  other  animals,  which,  though  smaller 
than  he,  were  larger-brained  and  therefore  quicker 
in  their  movements,  and,  more  cunning.  In  his 
combats  with  these  brainier  animals  the  Dinoceras 
for  a  long  time  came  out  the  victor.  Had  it  been 
otherwise,  these  horned  monsters  which  were  about 
the  size  of  a  big  rhinoceros  could  not  have  lived  in 
such  large  numbers  for  many  hundreds,  perhaps 
even  thousands,  of  years.  But,  as  they  finally  all 
disappeared  from  the  earth,  it  is  natural  to  suppose 
that  the  bigger-brained  animals  at  last  conquered 
them. 

The  only  place  where  the  Dinoceras  has  been 
discovered  is  the  desert  that  occupies  southwestern 


THE   LITTLE-BRAINED   DINOCERAS  91 

Wyoming  and  northeastern  Utah.  Nothing  more 
desolate  than  this  whole  region  can  be  imagined,  for 
it  is  made  up  entirely  of  rocks.  And  within  these  rocks 
lie  buried  the  bones  of  countless  animals.  Professor 
0.  C.  Marsh  was  the  first  man  who  ventured  to 
explore  this  vast  cemetery  in  search  of  these  bones. 
He  was  rewarded  by  discovering  the  Dinoceras 
which,  at  first,  was  given  the  name  Uintatherium  - 
Uinta  Animal  —  because  it  was  found  in  the  Uinta 
rock  formation,  and  in  some  museums  and  books  this 
name  is  still  used.  Before  he  succeeded  in  taking 
any  f ossijs  from  the  desert,  Professor  Marsh  had  many 
an  exciting  experience.  For  the  Indians  living 
near  by  believed  that  these  fossils  were  the  bones  of 
their  ancestors  whom  they  worshiped.  So  they 
started  some  spirited  fights  in  their  efforts  to  keep  the 
white  men  out  of  this  old  burial  ground. 

For  many  generations  the  Indians  who  passed 
through  this  desert  had  told  wonderful  tales  of 
gigantic  skulls  and  legs  and  feet  which  they  had 
seen  sticking  out  of  the  rocks.  Sometimes  an  Indian 
who  had  been  in  the  desert  many  times  would  insist 
that  these  bones  were  pushing  themselves  farther 


92  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

and  farther  from  out  the  stone.  A  skull  which,  a 
few  years  before,  showed  little  more  than  the  grinning 
mouth  with  its  ferocious-looking  teeth,  had,  so  this 
Indian  would  say,  made  its  way  out  of  the  stone 
until  much  of  the  head  was  visible.  Neither  he  nor 
any  of  the  Indians  who  heard  his  tale  knew  that  it 
was  the  wearing  away  of  the  rock  that  had  caused 
the  skeleton  to  come  into  plainer  view.  They  all 
supposed  that  through  some  miracle  the  bones  of 
their  gigantic  ancestors  were  rising  from  their 
tombs. 

So  it  is  no  wonder  the  Indians  objected  to  any  one 
going  into  the  desert  to  disturb  these  bones.  They 
were  horrified  when  they  saw  the  white  men  take  up 
great  rocks  containing  skeletons  and  cart  them  away 
to  be  shipped  to  museums.  In  the  hope  of  saving 
their  forefathers  from  such  an  ignoble  fate  the 
Indians  fought  valiantly  with  tomahawk  and  arrow. 
So  hostile  were  they  that  it  was  necessary  at  one 
time  for  Professor  Marsh  to  take  an  escort  of  United 
States  troops  into  the  desert  with  him.  Even  to-day 
the  hunter  for  bones  in  this  region  is  likely  to  come 
upon  a  troublesome  Indian;  for  many  of  the  red 


THE   LITTLE-BRAINED  DINOCERAS  93 

men  have  never  ceased  to  resent  the  invasion  of  the 
white  men  into  this  locality.  It  is  not  possible  to 
convince  them  that  the  buried  skeletons  are  the 
bones  of  animals  and  not  of  human  beings.  But  in 
spite  of  opposition  on  the  part  of  the  Indians,  many 
skeletons  of  the  Dinoceras  have  been  taken  from 
these  rocks.  So  far  no  skin  has  ever  been  found  with 
these  skeletons,  but  there  is  reason  for  believing  that 
Terrible  Horn  was  covered  with  a  skin  like  that  of 
the  living  elephant  or  rhinoceros. 

The  desert  in  which  these  creatures  are  found  was 
once  a  beautiful  country  consisting  of  a  chain  of 
inland  seas,  on  the  shores  of  which  grew  tropical 
vegetation.  Vast  numbers  of  gigantic  animals  and 
smaller  ones  as  well  lived  in  these  seas  and  the 
surrounding  country  for  many  tens  of  thousands  of 
years.  During  all  that  time  the  waters  were  salt 
and  connected  with  the  ocean  on  the  west.  But 
the  bottoms  of  some  of  the  seas  were  slowly  rising. 
After  many  thousands  of  centuries,  they  had  risen 
so  high  they  began  to  form  small  mountains.  These 
mountains,  through  the  changes  that  later  took 
place  on  this  continent,  became  the  towering  ranges 


94  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

now  to  be  seen  in  the  western  part  of  the  United 
States. 

As  the  bottoms  of  the  seas  rose,  the  seas  themselves 
disappeared.  But  there  were  other  seas,  the  bottoms 
of  which  did  not  rise  and  form  mountains.  One  of 
these  was  in  the  southwestern  part  of  Wyoming  and,  as 
the  mountains  formed  into  the  Wasatch  range  on  the 
west  and  the  Rockies  on  the  east,  they  shut  off  this 
sea  from  the  ocean.  As  thereafter  it  was  fed  only 
by  streams  of  fresh  water,  it  became  a  fresh- water 
lake.  It  was  not  until  all  these  changes  had  occurred 
that  the  Dinoceras  appeared  on  the  shores  of  this 
lake,  which  was  about  one  hundred  miles  long.  The 
climate  was  still  mild,  for  the  mountains  had  not  then 
risen  high  enough  to  shut  off  the  warm  winds  from 
the  ocean. 

Here,  in  this  luxurious  land,  the  Dinoceras  lived  for 
many  generations.  To-day  he  is  famous,  chiefly 
because  of  his  small  brain  and  the  fact  that  he  was 
one  of  the  first  gigantic  mammals  in  the  world.  For 
many  ages  before  the  time  of  the  Dinoceras,  the  rep- 
tiles had  ruled  the  earth,  but  after  the  mammals 
had  once  gained  the  mastery  of  the  reptiles,  they 


DINOCERAS 

(After  H.  F.  Osborn.    Original  in  American  Museum  of  Natural  History) 


96  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

never  lost  it.  The  reason  for  this  may  be  that  all 
mammals  suckle  their  young  instead  of  leaving  them 
to  feed  themselves  as  best  they  can,  after  the  manner 
of  the  reptiles.  And  a  young  animal  protected  and 
fed  in  this  way  stands  a  better  chance  of  growing 
up  strong  and  vigorous  than  do  the  young  of  reptiles. 
To-day  the  most  powerful  animals  in  the  world  are 
mammals  while  the  reptiles  have  to  take  a  subor- 
dinate place. 

The  kingdom  over  which  the  Dinoceras  exercised 
his  brute  authority  was  made  up  of  many  animals 
of  different  forms  and  sizes.  Some  were  flesh  eaters, 
but  most  of  them,  like  the  Dinoceras,  lived  on  plants 
and  roots.  There  were  big,  heavily-built,  vicious 
creatures  resembling  the  bear;  and  others,  less 
fierce,  were  somewhat  like  the  tapir.  Still  others 
were  similar  to  the  cat,  the  wolf,  or  the  fox. 
Moles  were  digging  industriously  in  the  earth. 
Monkeys  were  swinging  from  the  branches  of  trees 
and  hiding  within  the  big-leaved  foliage.  And  an 
ancestor  of  the  horse,  no  bigger  than  a  fox  terrier, 
was  running  briskly  about.  When  this  small  creature 
happened  to  get  in  the  pathway  of  a  Dinoceras,  he 


THE   LITTLE-BRAINED   DINOCERAS  97 

was  crushed  to  death  under  one  huge  foot  as  easily 
as  a  kitten  of  to-day  is  crushed  by  an  elephant. 

Yet,  strange  to  say,  as  the  centuries  passed,  this 
ancestor  of  the  horse,  and  others  among  the  small 
animals,  grew  bigger  and  stronger  and  the  Dinoceras 
became  less  and  less  powerful  until,  at  last,  this 
little-brained,  big-bodied  mammal  lived  no  more  on 
the  earth. 


MIGHTY    ANIMALS — 7 


m  Ww  x 


^  OTHERS 


Restoration  by  diaries  Knight 
TITANOTHERIUM 

(After  H.  F.  Osborn.     Original  in  American  Museum  of  Natural  History) 


TITANOTHERES  AND   OTHERS 

AFTER  the  Dinoceras  had  disappeared  from  the 
western  part  of  the  United  States,  there  were  still 
many  strange  animals  making  their  homes  in  that 
section  of  the  world.  And  in  no  place  were  they  more 
numerous  than  the  locality  in  South  Dakota  now 
called  "The  Bad  Lands."  These  lands  are  well 
named,  for  one  may  walk  through  them  for  miles 
over  a  floor  of  rock,  and  see  nothing  in  any  direction 
but  other  rocks  of  fantastic  shape  and  wholly  bare 
of  vegetation. 

Yet,  long  ago,  it  was  quite  different.  There  were 
lakes  all  through  this  part  of  Dakota,  and  in  the 
country  around  these  lakes  grew  plants  of  many 
kinds.  The  climate  was  sunny  and  warm,  and  in 
these  congenial  surroundings  lived  numberless 
animals.  Among  them  were  some  creatures  about 
the  size  of  a  Shetland  pony  and  not  at  all  pleasing 
in  appearance.  Their  heads  were  very  odd  in  shape, 
for  in  the  center  of  the  top  was  a  deep  depression  just 

101 


102       v.;<       MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

as  th^6:i£  kua  riding  Raddle.  And  they  all  had 
little  stubby  knobs  sticking  up  on  the  tops  of  their 
noses. 

Of  course,  after  a  time,  these  animals  died.  But 
they  left  descendants.  These  were  a  little  bigger  than 
the  first  animals  and  the  knobs  on  their  noses  were 
a  little  higher.  They,  in  their  turn,  left  descendants 
which  were  still  larger  and  had  knobs  on  their  noses 
that  were  still  higher.  And  so  these  beasts  increased 
in  size,  generation  after  generation,  until,  at  last, 
they  reached  a  point  where  they  were  as  large  as  an 
elephant.  By  this  time  they  had  stout  horns  a  foot 
high  on  their  noses,  instead  of  little  stubby  knobs. 
For  thousands  of  years  these  big  creatures  flourished 
around  the  Dakota  lakes,  then,  suddenly,  they 
disappeared  completely. 

A  million  years  or  more  after  this  remarkable  dis- 
appearance, some  men  who  were  searching  for  fossils 
in  the  Dakota  Bad  Lands  came  upon  the  bones  of  one 
of  these  animals  near  the  top  of  a  high  bluff.  The 
men  were  immediately  much  interested  in  their  dis- 
covery, for,  although  they  were  experienced  fossil 
hunters,  they  had  never  before  seen  bones  like  these. 


TITANOTHERES  AND  OTHERS  103 

After  they  had  unearthed  nearly  an  entire  skeleton, 
and  had  sent  this  skeleton  to  a  museum,  where  it  was 
taken  from  the  rock,  it  was  seen  that  a  very  large 
animal  had  been  found.  So  he  was  named  Titano- 
therium,  which  means  Gigantic  Beast. 

After  this  first  Titanotherium  had  been  discovered, 
many  fossil  hunters  from  different  museums  worked 
industriously  to  find  others,  and  succeeded  even 
beyond  their  expectations.  Skeletons  of  these  crea- 
tures were  taken  from  the  bluffs  to  a  depth  of  one 
hundred  and  eighty  feet.  Below  this  depth,  other 
animals  were  found  which  were  just  like  the  Titano- 
therium, only  of  smaller  size  and  with  shorter  horns. 
This  made  the  fossil  hunters  all  the  more  eager  to 
continue  their  search.  The  result  was  that  the 
farther  down  the  bluffs  they  went  the  smaller  were 
the  skeletons  they  unearthed.  At  last,  after  work- 
ing for  many  summers,  they  came  upon  the  Titano- 
therium's  first  ancestor,  the  small  creature  with  the 
stubby  knobs  sticking  up  on  the  end  of  his  nose ! 
The  name  Titanothere  was  given  this  entire  family 
of  animals,  but  the  largest  species  of  that  family 
still  goes  by  the  name  of  Titanotherium.  And 


104  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

fossil  hunters  are  continually  working  in  the  Dakota 
Bad  Lands  in  the  hope  of  making  new  discoveries 
concerning  all  the  different  members  of  this  strange 
family  of  beasts. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  these  different  sizes 
of  Titanotheres  are  found  buried  in  neat  layers,  one 
below  the  other.  On  the  contrary,  the  different 
layers  are  often  in  different  bluffs.  But  the  farther 
down  a  layer  is  in  a  bluff,  the  smaller  are  the  animals 
it  contains.  So  it  is  known  that,  from  the  time  the 
Titanotheres  first  appeared  on  earth  until  they  dis- 
appeared, they  made  their  homes  in  this  part  of 
Dakota.  They  lived  in  other  parts  of  that  western 
country,  also,  but  not  in  such  large  numbers  as 
around  the  lakes  that  once  made  beautiful  the  now 
dreary  and  uninhabited  Bad  Lands. 

Tens  of  thousands  of  years,  yes,  perhaps,  even  a 
million  of  years,  passed  between  the  time  when  the 
first  Titanotheres  lived  and  the  time  when  the  last  of 
the  family  —  the  Titanotherium  —  became  extinct. 
The  general  estimate  is  that  it  takes  nine  hundred 
and  ninety-six  years  for  one  foot  of  rock  to  be  formed 
through  the  action  of  water  on  mud.  When  we  re- 


TITANOTHERES  AND  OTHERS  105 

member  that  the  rocks  in  which  the  Titanotherium  is 
found  extend  to  a  depth  of  one  hundred  and  eighty 
feet  and  that  below  this  one  hundred  and  eighty  feet 
are  many  deep  layers  of  rocks  containing  all  the  other 
sizes  of  Titanotheres,  we  can  gain  some  faint  idea  of 
how  long  this  family  of  animals  lived.  And  we 
know  that  they  ceased  to  exist  while  at  the  highest 
point  of  their  growth,  because  the  bones  of  the  largest 
members  of  the  family  are  in  the  upper  layer  of  rocks. 
But  why  did  the  Titanotheres  disappear  just  at 
the  time  when  it  would  seem  they  were  well  prepared 
to  hold  their  own  against  all  odds?  This  is  a  ques- 
tion that  has  puzzled  even  the  most  learned  among 
the  men  who  have  studied  these  animals.  Some, 
however,  believe  that  they  slowly  starved  to  death. 
They  were  plant  eaters,  and  unfortunately  for  them 
the  climate  began  to  grow  cold  after  they  had  de- 
veloped into  huge  creatures.  This  meant  that  the 
trees  and  grasses  were  tougher  and  less  plentiful, 
and  so,  as  the  teeth  of  the  Titanotherium  were  suited 
only  to  the  crushing  of  soft  and  juicy  food,  this 
lumbering,  slow-witted  beast  had  a  hard  time  of  it. 
Had  he  been  a  larger-brained  animal,  he  might 


106  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

gradually  have  found  some  new  way  of  feeding  him- 
self. But,  as  he  had  a  small  sluggish  brain,  he  was 
incapable  of  doing  this.  So,  as  plants  of  sturdier 
growth  began  to  take  the  place  of  the  tropical  food, 
these  poor  animals,  unable  to  get  enough  to  nourish 
their  huge  bodies,  died  from  weakness.  It  may  have 
taken  many  generations  for  them  all  to  be  thus 
vanquished  in  life's  battle,  but  their  downfall  was 
complete  before  enough  time  had  passed  for  them  to 
decrease  in  size.  This  may  not  be  the  true  reason 
for  the  disappearance  of  these  animals  while  they 
were  at  the  highest  point  of  their  development,  but 
it  is  the  best  one  so  far  given  by  those  who  have  made 
a  study  of  the  subject. 

After  all  the  Titanotheres  were  dead,  the  climate 
of  North  America  continued  to  grow  colder,  but  the 
change  was  very  gradual.  The  country  was  still  filled 
with  many  remarkable  animals  among  which  was  the 
Elotherium,  a  distant  and  gigantic  relative  of  the  pig. 
He  must  have  caused  terror  among  the  smaller 
animals,  for  he  was  a  fierce  brute.  His  head  was 
fully  a  yard  long  and  his  sharp  teeth  show  that  he 
lived  on  both  plants  and  roots.  These  beasts 


TITAXOTHERES  AND   OTHERS  107 

wandered  by  the  thousands  over  the  plains  of 
Oregon  and  as  far  east  as  the  lake  region  of  South 
Dakota,  where  once  reigned  the  Titanotheres.  If 
all  the  animals  then  living,  hideous  though  they  were, 
had  entered  a  beauty  contest,  the  Elotherium  would 
have  stood  a  good  chance  of  winning  the  booby 
prize. 

Animals  something  like  the  living  camel  and 
llama  were  in  America  in  those  days,  strange  though 
it  seems  to  us  now.  And  fiercest  among  the  flesh 
eaters  were  the  saber-toothed  cats,  some  of  which 
were  as  large  as  tigers  and  had  canine  teeth  seven 
inches  long.  Many  a  time  must  they  have  crouched 
in  the  shadows,  their  treacherous  eyes  gleaming  as 
they  waited  to  pounce  on  their  prey.  For  they  were 
all  vicious  and  ever  on  the  watch  to  kill.  Then, 
also,  there  was  a  rhinoceros,  but  it  was  not  much 
like  the  rhinoceros  of  our  time.  Skeletons  of  these 
creatures  have  been  found  by  the  thousands  in 
Kansas,  and  so  grouped  as  to  show  that  hundreds 
died  together  as  the  result  of  some  terrible  disaster. 
And,  living  as  neighbor  to  all  these  big  animals,  was 
the  ancestor  of  the  horse,  which  had  gained  in  size 


108  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

since  the  time  of  the  Titanotheres,  but  which  still 
did  not  look  as  though  he  would  some  day  become 
the  most  beautiful  and  valuable  animal  in  the  world. 

Nor  was  America  the  only  country  inhabited  by 
queer  animals  during  this  period  in  the  earth's 
history.  Some  very  remarkable  creatures  were 
then  living  in  Egypt.  One  of  them  was  the  largest 
mammal  of  his  time.  No  one  ever  heard  of  this  beast 
until  1902,  when  his  bones  were  found  near  the 
palace  in  which  the  Egyptian  princess,  Arsinoe,  sister 
of  Cleopatra,  used  to  live.  The  man  who  found 
these  bones  decided  he  would  name  the  creature 
himself.  So  he  added  the  word  "therium"  (beast)  to 
Arsinoe  and  made  the  name  Arsinoitherium.  If 
Arsinoe  had  been  living,  he  would  never  have  dared 
do  such  a  thing.  For  what  princess  would  tolerate 
having  as  a  namesake  an  animal  over  five  feet  tall, 
with  a  short  neck,  long  legs,  broad,  thick  feet,  two 
high  broad  horns  sticking  out  from  his  face,  and  two 
more  short  horns  above  them  ? 

But  when  the  Arsinoitherium  was  alive  there  had 
never  been  a  princess  on  earth.  The  pyramids  of 
Egypt  seem  so  old  to  us  we  are  awed  when  we  think 


Restoration  by  Charles  Knight 


ARSINOITHERIUM 

(After  H.  F.  Osborn.     Original  in  American  Museum  of  Natural  History) 


110  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

of  them.  Yet  the  Arsinoitherium  lived  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  years  before  the  pyramids  were 
built.  His  bones  now  lie  in  a  desert,  but  in  his  life- 
time that  same  locality  was  a  fertile  country  and 
the  home  of  many  kinds  of  animals,  most  of  which 
were  probably  his  enemies.  /There  were  gigantic 
tortoises,  snakes  fully  sixty  feet  in  length,  ostrich- 
like  birds,  big  crocodiles,  river  turtles,  sea  snakes, 
and  whales,  as  well  as  some  very  peculiar  beasts 
which  were  among  the  first  ancestors  of  the  ele- 
phant, although  they  were  but  little  like  the  ele- 
phants with  which  we  are  familiar. 

In  the  course  of  time  many  of  these  animals 
entirely  disappeared  and  nothing  like  them  has  ever 
since  been  seen.  Others  slowly  changed  in  form  and 
developed  in  size  until  they  became  so  powerful  that 
they  in  their  turn  were  the  rulers  of  the  earth,  just  as 
many  other  mighty  creatures  had  been  before  them. 


(112)  Restoration  by  Charles  Knight 

MAMMOTH 
(After  H.  F.  Osborn.     Original  in  American  Museum  of  Natural  History) 


MAMMOTHS  AND   MASTODONS 

SLOWLY,  through  thousands  of  years,  the  elephants 
developed  from  small  creatures  with  short  trunks 
and  tusks,  into  animals  so  powerful  that,  at  last, 
they  were  the  monarchs  of  the  entire  world.  Now 
they  live  only  in  Africa  and  India,  and  any  one 
in  other  countries  who  wishes  to  see  one  of  these 
animals  must  go  either  to  a  circus  or  a  zoolog- 
ical garden.  Yet,  in  all  the  places  where  elephants 
are  at  present  exhibited  as  curiosities,  they  once 
made  their  homes.  For  they  lived  in  nearly  every 
part  of  Asia  and  Africa  and  in  Europe  and  America. 
There  were  many  different  kinds  of  them,  but  none 
were  exactly  like  the  elephants  of  to-day.  And 
mightiest  among  them  all  were  the  Mammoths  and 
the  Mastodons. 

When  men  first  began  to  find  the  fossil  bones  of 
elephants  buried  in  the  earth,  they  thought  them  the 
bones  of  human  beings.  They  therefore  concluded 

MIGHTY   ANIMALS  — 8          113 


114  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

that  once  there  were  giants  in  the  world.  This  is  the 
reason  there  are  so  many  stories  about  giants  in  the 
books  written  long  ago.  The  Greeks  believed  that 
these  giants  were  mighty  warriors,  and  they  worshiped 
them  as  heroes.  Once  when  they  found  the  knee  bone 
of  an  elephant  they  thought  it  was  the  knee  bone  of 
Ajax,  one  of  the  tallest  and  strongest  of  these  heroes. 
But  the  Greeks  were  not  the  only  people  who 
thought  that  the  elephant  bones  which  were  found 
buried  in  the  earth  were  those  of  human  beings.  In 
Switzerland  about  three  hundred  and  thirty  years 
ago  a  violent  storm  uprooted  an  oak  tree  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Lucerne.  Sticking  out  from  the 
big  hole  thus  made  in  the  ground  were  some  enor- 
mous elephant  bones.  A  professor  in  a  college  at 
Basel,  after  carefully  examining  them,  said  that  they 
were  the  bones  of  a  man,  who  in  life  stood  nineteen 
feet  high.  Then  he  took  the  bones  and  put  them 
together  so  that  they  looked  something  like  the 
skeleton  of  a  man.  The  people  of  Lucerne,  believing 
from  this  that  their  ancestors  were  giants,  thereafter 
used  the  figure  of  a  giant  as  part  of  their  city  arms. 
And  even  to-day  a  picture  of  the  skeleton  made  by 


MAMMOTHS  AND   MASTODONS  115 

the  Basel  professor  may  be  seen  in  one  of  the  colleges 
at  Lucerne. 

In  England,  during  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth, 
much  excitement  was  caused  by  the  discovery  at 
Walton  of  what  was  supposed  to  be  the  body  of  a 
giant.  A  man  of  the  time,  writing  about  this  dis- 
covery, said  that  the  giant's  skull  would  hold  five 
pecks  and  that  every  tooth  weighed  ten  ounces ! 
Then  he  added  that  it  was  plain  to  see  these  bones 
were  those  of  a  man  and  not  of  a  beast.  In  America, 
mistakes  just  as  queer  were  made.  Cotton  Mather 
and  other  well-known  men  considered  the  fossil 
elephant  bones  found  throughout  the  United  States 
proof  that  this  country  was  once  inhabited  by  a  race 
of  giants. 

When  elephant  bones  were  first  found  in  Siberia, 
the  peasants  supposed  that  gigantic  animals  were 
living  far  down  in  the  earth.  These  animals,  so  said 
the  peasants,  were  so  strong  that,  as  they  traveled 
about  beneath  the  ground,  they  dug  out  deep  caves. 
But  they  could  not  live  in  the  air  and  light  of  the 
upper  world.  Because  of  this  belief,  the  peasants, 
when  any  elephant  bones  were  discovered,  thought 


116  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

that  they  belonged  to  one  of  these  animals  which, 
in  its  wanderings,  had  lost  its  way  and,  coming 
to  the  surface  of  the  earth,  had  died  from  breath- 
ing the  air  and  seeing  the  light.  The  Chinese  had 
a  similar  belief  about  the  big  bones  found  in  their 
country. 

Although  the  elephants  began  to  be  the  rulers  of 
the  animal  world  long  before  any  people  lived,  some 
of  them  were  still  on  earth  when  man  first  ap- 
peared .  These  were  the  Mammoths.  We  know  that 
this  was  so  because  Mammoth  bones  have  been 
found  in  places  where  there  are  signs  that  man  once 
made  his  home.  In  France  a  piece  of  fossil  ivory 
has  been  discovered  with  the  outline  of  a  Mammoth 
sketched  upon  it.  This  drawing  was  the  wtfrk  of 
some  one  who  lived  long  before  people  expressed 
themselves  by  the  use  of  written  words.  For 
those  first  men  and  women  and  children  had  but 
little  more  intelligence  than  the  animals  which  were 
their  neighbors.  They  lived  in  caves  and  hunted 
these  animals  for  their  flesh  and  skins.  And  there 
were  plenty  of  animals  to  hunt  besides  the  Mam- 
moth. For  the  bear,  hyena,  and  ox,  the  bison  and 


MAMMOTHS  AND   MASTODONS  117 

horse,  the  fox  and  woolly  rhinoceros,  the  Irish  elk 
and  the  reindeer,  were  living  then,  and  other  animals, 
also.  As  the  British  Isles,  Europe,  and  Africa  were 
all  connected  at  that  time,  these  creatures  had  a  wide 
range.  The  waters,  too,  were  filled  with  animals, 
and  through  the  rivers  that  crossed  Europe  hippo- 
potamuses swam  and  waded  from  Africa  to  England, 
where  many  of  them  lived  and  died. 

We  may  be  sure  that  the  flesh  eaters  among  these 
animals  hunted  man  even  more  than  man  hunted 
them.  Then,  also,  the  animals  fought  among  them- 
selves and  men  fought  one  another.  So  it  was  a  time 
of  continual  warfare. 

But,  in  the  days  when  the  Mammoths  were  the 
most  powerful,  there  were  no  human  beings  living. 
It  was  probably  more  because  of  their  numbers  than 
of  their  size  that  these  animals  held  dominion  over  all 
other  animals  for  so  long  a  period  of  time.  It  has 
often  been  said  that  both  the  Mammoths  and  the 
Mastodons  were  very  much  larger  than  any  living 
elephants.  This  is  a  mistake.  To  be  sure  some 
of  them  were  taller  than  are  the  elephants  seen  in 
exhibitions,  for  these  are  rarely  more  than  nine  feet 


118  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

in  height.  But  wild  elephants  over  twelve  feet  tall 
have  been  captured.  So  far  nothing  has  been  dis- 
covered to  prove  that  the  Mammoth  exceeded  thir- 
teen feet  in  height.  When  we  remember,  however, 
that  a  ceiling  in  a  dwelling  house  is  seldom  more 
than  ten  feet  high,  an  animal  thirteen  feet  tall 
seems  an  enormous  creature. 

Many  of  the  Mammoths  were  covered  with  hair, 
and  these  are  known  as  the  Hairy  Mammoths.  Next 
to  the  skin  was  a  mass-  of  soft  brownish  wool ;  then 
came  a  layer  of  fine  hair,  and  outside  of  this  was  a 
coat  of  very  coarse  hair  fully  eighteen  inches  long. 
This  hair  kept  the  Mammoths  warm  when  the  cli- 
mate was  cold  and  also  must  have  served  as  a  protec- 
tion against  enemies.  For  surely  when  an  animal  tried 
to  bite  one  of  these  Mammoths  he  found  its  hair  very 
much  in  his  way,  and  very  much  in  his  mouth,  too. 

The  tusks  of  the  Hairy  Mammoth  were  wonderful 
and  beautiful.  Instead  of  being  straight  like  the 
tusks  of  the  living  elephant,  they  curved  outward 
and  upward  almost  making  a  circle.  They  were  like 
enormous  hooks  of  ivory  and  sometimes  thirteen 
feet  long.  What  a  mighty  beast  he  was  which 


MAMMOTHS  AND   MASTODONS  119 

carried  such  magnificent  ivory  hooks  on  his  head ! 
And  what  a  sight  a  whole  herd  of  these  creatures 
must  have  been  when  they  made  their  way 
through  the  forests  !  Nothing  could  stop  the  prog- 
ress of  such  a  procession  of  Mammoths.  They 
tramped  down  tall  grasses  and  underbrush,  leaving 
not  a  blade  or  a  twig  standing.  When  trees  blocked 
their  passage,  they  wound  their  great  trunks  about 
them  and  laid  them  low.  When  they  came  to  the 
bank  of  a  river,  they  forded  it  if  it  was  shallow,  and 
swam  it  if  it  was  deep.  As  they  climbed  up  the 
opposite  bank  some  of  them,  no  doubt,  became 
mired  and  found  it  impossible  to  free  themselves 
from  the  oozing  mud.  Imprisoned  in  this  manner 
they  died,  sinking  farther  and  farther  into  the  earth 
until  they  entirely  disappeared  from  sight.  But  the 
large  majority  of  this  traveling  herd  made  their  way 
up  the  bank  in  safety  and  journeyed  on,  leaving 
destruction  in  their  pathway.  And  when  they 
joined  together  and  sent  up  a  chorus  of  trumpetings, 
terrible  was  the  sound  thereof. 

Such  a  scene  as  this  must  have  occurred  count- 
less times  throughout  the  world  in  the  very  places 


120  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

where  now  are  great  cities  in  which  an  elephant  is 
never  seen  except  when  on  exhibition.  And  as- 
tonishing does  it  seem  that  once  such  herds  traveled 
through  the  United  States. 

But  it  was  not  until  after  the  Mammoths  had  lived 
for  a  long  time  in  other  countries  that  they  came  to 
America.  They  found  their  way  here  from  Asia  by 
crossing  the  strip  of  land  that  once  connected  that 
continent  with  Alaska.  The  Hairy  Mammoth 
ranged  from  the  Pacific  to  the  Atlantic  and  about  as 
far  south  as  the  Middle  States.  Another  species, 
called  the  southern  Mammoth,  was  in  the  meantime 
living  in  Mexico  and  in  the  states  as  far  north  as 
Washington  city  on  the  east  and  Washington  state 
on  the  west.  These  southern  Mammoths  were  even 
heavier  and  more  awkward  than  the  hairy  species. 
Once  in  a  while,  some  of  them  wandered  up  into  the 
regions  where  the  Hairy  Mammoths  lived,  but  they 
did  not  make  those  regions  their  real  homes. 

Yet,  after  all,  the  Mammoths  were  not  the  kings  and 
queens  among  the  elephants  of  America.  For  the 
Mastodons  lived  here  in  even  larger  numbers  than  did 
the  Mammoths,  and  they  excelled  them  in  weight,  in 


122  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

strength  of  muscle,  ^nd  in  length  of  body,  but  not  in 
height.  The  chief  difference,  however,  between  these 
two  species  of  elephants  was  in  their  teeth,  for  those 
of  the  Mammoth  show  a  much  closer  relation  to 
the  true  elephant  than  do  those  of  the  Mastodon. 

It  is  thought  by  some  scientists  that  the  Masto- 
dons were  in  America  for  a  long  time  before  the 
Mammoths  appeared  and  that  they  lived  here 
after  the  Mammoths  had  disappeared.  Some  even 
believe  that  early  man  in  America  saw  the  living 
Mastodons,  but  no  positive  proof  of  this  has  been 
found.  But  we  do  know  that  this  country  con- 
tained many  other  kinds  of  gigantic  animals  when 
the  elephants  were  living  here.  Among  these  animals 
were  bisons  which  measured  ten  feet  between  the 
horn  tips ;  horses  fully  as  big  as  any  now  in  existence  ; 
water  rats  as  large  as  bears ;  stags  of  amazing  size ; 
huge  sloths  and  many  other  creatures  now  found  only 
in  warm  countries.  In  those  days  all  the  countries 
in  the  world  that  are  now  cold  had  milder  climates, 
although  the  vegetation  was  beginning  to  be  much 
like  that  of  the  present  time.  There  were  dense 
forests  all  over  America,  and  the  grasses  and  bushes 


MAMMOTHS  AND   MASTODONS  123 

grew  so  luxuriantly  that  they  made  good  feeding 
grounds  for  all  of  the  plant-eating  animals. 

The  Mastodons  thrived  wonderfully  on  this  diet  ; 
for,  although  they  lived  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  it 
was  in  America  that  they  reached  their  greatest 
size  and  were  the  most  numerous.  They  were 
scattered  from  one  end  of  the  continent  to  the  other, 
and  nowadays  their  bones  are  frequently  found 
by  farmers  as  they  plow,  and  by  laborers  as  they 
dig  ditches  or  foundations  for  buildings.  Often 
these  bones  are  mistaken  for  logs.  And  then  again 
they  are  so  well  preserved  that  whoever  discovers 
them  immediately  knows  he  has  brought  part  of  a 
gigantic  animal  to  light. 

In  Missouri,  about  twenty  miles  south  of  St. 
Louis,  hundreds  of  Mastodons  have  been  found 
together  within  a  small  space.  Among  them  are 
great  big  ones  which  had  probably  lived  to  a  good 
old  age,  little  baby  ones,  and  middle-sized  ones. 
Michigan,  Ohio,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Kentucky, 
and  Florida  have  also  yielded  up  remarkable  skele- 
tons of  these  creatures.  But  those  discovered  in 
New  York  are  the  best  preserved,  and  the  reason 


124  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

for  this  may  be  that  the  animals  died  by  being 
caught  in  mud,  which  quickly  closed  over  them  and 
served  as  an  air-tight  tomb.  With  one  of  these 
skeletons  was  found  some  long,  soft,  woolly  hair; 
so  it  is  thought  that  there  may  have  been  Hairy 
Mastodons,  just  as  there  were  Hairy  Mammoths. 

None  of  the  Mastodons  have  been  recovered  in 
as  good  a  state  of  preservation  as  have  some  of  the 
Mammoths  that  lived  in  a  cold  climate.  For  this 
reason  we  know  more  about  the  way  the  Mammoth 
looked  than  we  do  about  the  appearance  of  the 
Mastodon.  In  Siberia,  Mammoths  have  been  dis- 
covered with  the  skin  and  flesh  still  on  them.  The 
first  of  these  discoveries  was  made  in  1799  by  a 
man  who  had  gone  to  Lake  Onkoul  to  hunt  for 
fossil  Mammoth  tusks.  One  day  he  saw  a  huge, 
dark  mass  looming  up  out  of  the  ice  in  the  lake, 
but  he  paid  no  attention  to  the  unusual  sight. 
The  next  year  he  returned  to  the  same  place  to 
hunt,  and  again  saw  the  strange  object  in  the  ice 
out  in  the  lake.  Still  he  paid  no  attention  to  it. 
When  he  went  back  once  more,  three  years  later, 
the  big  mass  had  fallen  from  the  ice  and  drifted 


-MAMMOTHS  AND  MASTODONS  125 

in  toward  the  beach.  Then  he  saw  that  it  was  a 
Mammoth.  Yet  all  he  did  was  to  cut  off  the  crea- 
ture's tusks  that  he  might  sell  them. 

Two  years  after  this,  a  man  by  the  name  of  Adams 
saw  this  same  Mammoth  still  lying  on  the  beach. 
But  by  this  time  little  was  left  of  it  except  the 
skeleton.  For  the  natives  had  fed  the  flesh  to 
their  dogs  and  what  they  had  not  used  the  wolves 
and  bears  had  torn  from  the  bones  and  devoured. 
The  ground  all  round  the  skeleton  was  tramped 
down  by  these  wild  animals.  Mr.  Adams  searched 
beneath  their  tracks  until  he  found  some  of  the 
Mammoth's  skin  and  hair.  He  then  took  the  skele- 
ton and  these  fragments  of  skin  and  hair  to  St. 
Petersburg,  a  distance  of  7330  miles.  There  the 
skeleton  was  mounted  and  placed  in  the  museum  of  the 
St.  Petersburg  Academy,  where  it  may  still  be  seen. 

In  this  same  museum  is  another  Mammoth,  which 
was  discovered  as  far  north  as  the  Arctic  Circle. 
The  position  in  which  this  animal  was  found  showed 
that  he  had  slipped  into  a  deep  crevice  and  had 
died  while  trying  to  make  his  way  to  safety.  He 
had  been  eating  grass  just  before  he  fell  and  when 


126  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

unearthed  thousands  of  years  later,  some  of  this 
grass  was  still  in  his  mouth !  During  a  hundred 
centuries  or  more  he  had  stayed  in  exactly  the 
position  in  which  he  died.  This  position  showed 
that  he  had  strained  every  muscle  in  his  body  in 
an  attempt  to  work  his  way  up  over  the  edge  of 
the  crevice.  But  he  had  burst  a  blood  vessel  in  the 
effort  and  that  was  the  end  of  him.  After  his  death, 
the  earth  and  ice  caved  in  on  him,  then  froze.  In 
this  way  the  air  was  kept  from  his  body  so  that  it 
remained  without  change  for  thousands  of  years. 

When  this  creature  was  alive,  Siberia  was  probably 
covered  with  fir  trees  and  hardy  bushes.  It  could 
not  have  been  as  icy  a  country  as  it  is  to-day,  for  the 
elephants  lived  there  in  large  numbers.  Thousands 
of  their  fossilized  tusks  have  been  found,  and  many 
of  them  have  been  sold  to  manufacturers  who  have 
made  them  into  ornaments  or  billiard  balls.  And 
those  who  use  the  ornaments  or  play  with  the  bil- 
liard balls  do  not  know  that  they  are  handling  ivory 
that  once  was  part  of  an  elephant  which  lived  in 
Siberia  long  before  there  were  any  people  in  the  world. 

But,  after  all,  one  of  the  most  wonderful  things 


MAMMOTHS  AND  MASTODONS  127 

about  the  Mammoths  and  the  Mastodons  is  that 
they  finally  disappeared  completely.  The  elephants 
of  to-day  are,  of  course,  their  descendants,  but  none 
of  them  live  in  the  countries  where  the  Mammoths 
and  the  Mastodons  were  the  most  numerous. 
America,  Europe,  and  the  British  Isles  probably 
contained  millions  of  these  gigantic  beasts.  Yet 
they  entirely  disappeared  and  no  one  has  yet 
been  able  to  give  a  satisfactory  reason  for  this  dis- 
appearance. Some  men  think  that  the  climate  of 
the  whole  world  suddenly  became  so  cold  that  the 
elephants  could  not  survive  the  change.  Others 
believe  that  early  man  hunted  both  the  Mammoths 
and  the  Mastodons  until  all  were  killed.  But 
as  Europe  is  the  only  place  in  which  proofs  have 
been  found  that  early  man  and  the  Mammoth  lived 
at  the  same  time,  and  as  no  such  proofs  have  been 
discovered  in  any  country,  regarding  the  Mastodon, 
there  seems  little  reason  for  saying  that  these  ele- 
phants became  extinct  because  of  man. 


MIGHTY    ANIMALS  —  9 


(130) 


GLYPTODON 


SOME   SOUTH  AMERICAN   RULERS 

DURING  the  days  when  elephants  were  the  mon- 
archs  of  the  world,  there  was  a  pool  in  Nevada 
where  some  of  them  and  many  other  kinds  of  ani- 
mals used  to  go  to  drink.  At  times  the  ground 
around  the  edge  of  this  pool  was  so  soft  that  the 
feet  of  the  animals  sank  into  it.  Sometimes  the 
footprints  thus  made  in  the  mud  were  quickly 
covered  up  by  other  mud.  Slowly,  through  the 
action  of  the  water,  all  the  mud  around  the  pool 
was  turned  into  stone.  And  while  this  stone  was 
being  formed  the  pool  disappeared  and  so  did  the 
animals  which  drank  from  it. 

At  Carson  City,  Nevada,  a  prison  is  now  stand- 
ing where  once  was  this  pool.  Some  years  ago  it 
was  discovered  that  the  stones  in  the  prison  yard 
were  dented  with  impressions  of  foot  tracks.  Many 
persons  who  looked  at  these  tracks  thought  they 
had  been  made  by  gigantic  men  who  wore  mocca- 
sins. But  now  we  know  that  these  are  the  foot- 

131 


132  MIGHTY   ANIMALS 

prints  of  animals  which  walked  over  that  stone 
when  it  was  soft  mud  around  the  edge  of  the  little 
body  of  water  that,  long  ago,  occupied  the  site  of 
the  prison. 

There  are  impressions  in  the  rock  which  show 
that  a  deer  walked  down  to  that  water's  edge.  In 
another  place  there  is  a  path  trodden  by  a  Mammoth. 
In  another  are  deep  impressions  where  some  creature 
sat  down,  perhaps  to  gnaw  at  a  bone,  and  even  the 
marks  of  the  coarse  hair  on  this  animal's  body  are 
in  the  rock.  Then  there  are  footprints  showing 
that  two  animals  had  a  struggle  on  this  very  spot. 
One  braced  himself  on  his  heels  as  if  to  resist  the 
attack  of  the  other  which  stood  on  his  toes  as  he 
struck  at  his  foe  or  tried  to  bite  him.  The  peculiar 
shape  of  their  footprints  tells  us  that  these  two 
fighters  belonged  to  one  of  the  strongest  families  of 
animals  that  ever  lived  —  the  family  of  the  sloths. 
The  real  home  of  the  sloths  was  in  South  America, 
but  some  of  them  wandered  into  North  America, 
and  this  was  particularly  true  of  the  species  called 
Mylodon.  The  footprints  of  the  fighting  animals 
at  Carson  City  seem  to  have  been  made  by  My- 


SOME  SOUTH  AMERICAN   RULERS  133 

lodons,  and  when  they  visited  that  pool  of  water, 
they  were  far  away  from  Patagonia,  where  most  of 
the  Mylodons  then  lived. 

The  only  representative  of  the  sloth  family  now 
in  existence  does  not  look  much  as  though  his 
ancestors  were  among  the  strongest  of  all  the  ani- 
mals that  ever  made  their  homes  on  this  earth. 
For  the  living  sloth  is  a  small,  weak  creature,  unable 
to  travel  over  the  ground  except  by  crawling  along 
on  the  sides  of  his  hands  and  feet.  So  he  lives  in 
trees  and  travels  through  them  by  hanging  down- 
ward from  the  branches  to  which  he  clings  with 
his  claws.  When  he  wants  to  sleep  he  rolls  him- 
self up  until  he  looks  like  a  ball,  then  suspends 
himself  from  a  branch  and  there  hangs,  slumbering 
as  comfortably  as  though  in  a  nice,  cosy  nest. 
When  hungry  this  creature  is  satisfied  to  eat  the 
leaves  nearest  him,  although  others,  softer  and 
juicier,  are  but  a  little  distance  away.  This  is 
because  he  is  too  slothful  to  forage  around  for  his 
food. 

How  different  were  his  mighty  ancestors!  For 
they  not  only  went  far  at  times  in  search  of  a  meal, 


134  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

but,  after  finding  it,  often  fought  hard  to  keep 
other  animals  from  snatching  it  away.  And  it  is 
quite  possible  that  those  two  sloths  which  fought 
by  that  pool  in  Nevada  may  have  been  quarreling 
over  some  appetizing  morsel  that  both  wanted. 

But  the  most  active  food  gatherer  among  all  the 
sloths  was  the  Megatherium  —  Powerful  Beast. 
Indeed,  this  animal  probably  used  more  strength 
in  securing  his  food  than  did  any  other  animal  in 
the  world.  When  he  felt  hungry  he  started  out  in 
search  of  a  tree  for  a  meal.  He  went  shambling 
along,  as  awkward  a  sight  as  one  can  well  imagine ; 
for  his  legs  were  short,  his  feet  huge,  and  his  body 
nearly  as  large  as  that  of  an  elephant.  Through  the 
dense  forest  he  made  his  way  until  he  came  to  a 
tree  which  his  instinct  told  him  would  be  good  to 
eat.  Then  he  set  to  work.  First  he  went  all  round 
the  tree,  throwing  up  the  earth  with  his  enormous 
front  paws  that  ended  in  long,  sharp  claws.  How 
the  dirt  must  have  been  sent  flying  as  the  Megathe- 
rium proceeded  with  his  task !  When  the  ground 
about  the  roots  was  well  loosened,  this  beast  sat 
down,  firmly  planted  on  his  haunches  and  broad 


Restoration  by  Clement  B.  Davis 
MEGATHERIUMS  GATHERING   FOOD 


136  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

tail.  Grasping  the  trunk  of  the  tree  in  his  front 
paws  he  swayed  back  and  forth,  the  tree  swaying 
with  him.  There  must  have  been  a  loud  creaking 
of  the  trunk,  an  agitated  rustling  of  the  leaves, 
until  down  came  the  big  tree  with  a  crash.  And 
there  on  the  ground  lay  the  Megatherium's  break- 
fast, or  dinner,  or  supper,  as  the  case  might  be. 
Having  worked  so  hard  to  get  his  meal,  he  probably 
enjoyed  it  all  the  more  and  gave  the  choicest  bits, 
like  the  tender  leaves  and  twigs  at  the  top,  many  a 
caressing  lick  with  his  very  long  and  very  pointed 
tongue. 

As  thousands  of  Megatheriums  once  lived  on  the 
American  continent  many  thousands  of  trees  were 
laid  low  by  them.  It  seems  most  strange  that 
creatures  possessed  of  such  enormous  strength 
should  finally  have  ceased  to  exist.  By  looking  at 
a  Megatherium's  skeleton  a  good  idea  of  his  strength 
is  gained.  For  then  one  can  see  that  this  crea- 
ture's thigh  bone  was  nearly  three  times  as  large 
around  as  is  the  thigh  bone  of  an  elephant. 
The  whole  frame  reveals  muscles  of  extraordinary 
power,  and  the  tail  plainly  indicates  that  it  helped 


SOME  SOUTH  AMERICAN   RULERS  137 

bear  the  weight  of  the  Megatherium  when  he  sat 
down. 

Some  of  these  animals  made  their  homes  as  far 
north  as  North  Carolina,  where  their  bones  are 
found  in  old  river  beds.  But  for  thousands  of  years 
after  the  gigantic  sloths  appeared  in  South  America 
they  were  confined  wholly  to  that  country.  This 
was  because  South  America  was  for  a  long  time  an 
island.  While  it  remained  an  island  its  gigantic  ani- 
mals ruled  the  country  with  little  difficulty.  But 
after  a  land  connection  was  formed  with  North 
America  and  the  northern  animals  began  to  make 
their  way  into  South  America,  there  was  trouble  for 
the  sloths  and  other  big  creatures,  for  the  northern 
animals  were,  as  a  rule,  fiercer  in  disposition  than 
were  the  southern  species.  The  tremendous  strength 
and  long  claws  of  the  Megatherium  undoubtedly 
made  him  a  formidable  foe  even  of  the  elephant. 
But,  as  he  was  much  more  awkward  on  his  feet  than 
the  Ivory  King,  he  surely  met  with  defeat  in  many 
a  battle  which  the  two  waged  against  each  other. 

All  the  sloths  were  covered  with  a  very  thick 
skin,  on  which  grew  coarse  hair.  And  in  addition 


138  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

to  this  protection  against  the  attacks  of  enemies 
the  Mylodons  were  covered  all  over  with  small 
bones  that  were  sunk  deep  into  the  skin.  About 
the  only  creature  then  living  in  America  which 
could  bite  through  this  skin  was  the  saber-toothed 
cat.  We  are  told  that  when  one  of  these  cats 
attacked  a  Mylodon,  he  jumped  on  its  back  and 
sank  his  teeth  deeper  and  deeper  into  the  sloth's 
neck  until  the  arteries  were  severed.  Then  down 
would  go  the  big  Mylodon,  a  victim  to  a  creature 
smaller  but  more  vicious  than  itself. 

But,  although  the  Mylodons  were  not  as  good 
fighters  as  were  the  saber-toothed  cats,  they  long 
outlived  them.  It  has  been  proved  beyond  all 
question  that  the  Mylodons  were  living  after  man 
appeared  on  this  continent.  In  a  cavern  in  Pata- 
gonia Mylodon  bones  have  been  found  with  the 
bones  of  men.  And  with  these  Mylodon  skeletons 
were  large  pieces  of  skin  covered  with  greenish 
brown  hair.  Some  scientists  believe  that  the  Pata- 
gonian  Indians  kept  the  Mylodons  in  captivity, 
feeding  them  hay,  and  then  killing  them  when  they 
wanted  to  eat  the  flesh. 


SOME   SOUTH   AMERICAN   RULERS  139 

An  interesting  explanation  is  given  by  these 
scientists  regarding  the  reason  for  the  Mylodon 
living  so  long  after  the  other  gigantic  animals  of 
South  America  became  extinct.  This  explanation 
tells  us  that  all  the  southern  part  of  South  America 
was  rather  suddenly  covered  with  water  during  the 
time  of  the  sloths.  The  only  animals  in  that  part 
of  the  world  which  survived  this  flood  were  those 
that  sought  safety  on  some  high  section  of  land, 
and  among  them  were  a  few  Mylodons.  The  ani- 
mals lived  on  the  islands  thus  formed  until  the  land 
under  the  water  was  reelevated.  And  the  cavern 
in  which  Mylodon  bones  have  been  found  with  the 
bones  of  human  beings  is  supposed  to  have  been  on 
one  of  these  islands  of  refuge.  All  this  is  only 
theory,  but  it  seems  a  reasonable  explanation  re- 
garding why  some  of  the  'Mylodons  lived  so  long 
after  all  the  other  gigantic  sloths  had  entirely 
disappeared. 

Even  those  strange  creatures, '  the  Glyptodons, 
became  extinct  while  the  Mylodons  were  still 
flourishing  in  many  parts  of  South  America.  These 
animals  belonged  to  the  armadillo  family  and,  like 


140  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

the  little  living  armadillos,  were  protected  by  a 
bony  shield.  Only,  in  the  case  of  the  Glyptodon 
this  shield  was  of  huge  size.  And  resting  on  the 
top  of  his  head  was  another  shield  that  had  the  ap- 
pearance of  a  flat  hat. 

Although  this  animal  was  as  big  as  an  ox,  and 
often  nine  feet  or  more  in  length,  his  legs  were  so 
short  that  the  shield  over  his  back  reached  almost 
to  the  ground,  completely  hiding  his  body  except 
the  feet,  the  tail,  and  the  head,  which  was  carried 
very  low  down.  The  tail  was  made  up  of  what 
have  been  called  "movable  rings,"  and  the  shield, 
when  closely  examined,  proves  beautiful  in  design, 
for  all  over  it  are  rosette-like  sculptures  arranged 
in  a  set  pattern. 

The  shield  of  the  living  armadillo  is  jointed  so 
that  the  animal  can  roll  "himself  up  and  be  entirely 
covered  with  it  as  with  an  armor.  The  Glypto- 
don's  shield  had  no  such  joints,  but  was  constructed 
so  solidly  that  it  seems  as  though  no  animal  which 
ever  lived  could  have  succeeded  in  injuring  it.  So 
the  Glyptodon  carried  about  with  him  wherever  he 
went  a  valuable  protection  against  enemies.  But 


SOME   SOUTH  AMERICAN  RULERS  141 

it  may  be  that  the  monkeys  then  living  used  to 
tease  the  Glyptodon  by  holding  on  to  his  tail  and 
twisting  it  round  and  round  in  the  same  way  that 
the  monkeys  of  South  America  now  plague  the 
armadillo. 

Glyptodon  shields  in  almost  perfect  condition 
have  been  found  imbedded  in  the  ground  in  various 
sections  of  South  America.  One  of  them  was  put 
to  a  very  practical  use  by  a  man  who  was  obliged 
to  live  in  the  forests  for  a  time,  far  away  from  the 
conveniences  to  which  he  had  been  accustomed. 
He  found  the  shield  near  his  shack.  With  the 
help  of  the  natives  he  got  it  out  of  the  ground. 
Then  he  built  a  little  addition  to  his  shack,  placed 
the  shield  in  it  upside  down  antl  thereafter  used  it 
as  a  bathtub.  And  a  very  good  tub  it  made,  too, 
even  if  it  was  not  porcelain-lined  and  nickel-plated. 

The  Glyptodons  came  up  into  North  America, 
but  they  do  not  seem  to  have  lived  farther  north 
than  Florida.  'At  that  time  in  the  world's  history 
glaciers  were  drifting  from  north  to  south  over 
portions  of  North  America.  When  these  glaciers 
began  to  move  southward,  the  animals  migrated  in 


142  MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

the  same  direction  to  escape  the  extreme  cold.  It 
was  after  the  ice  had  drifted  north  again  that  the 
sloths  and  other  South  American  animals  came 
into  North  America.  Then  once  more  the  ice  began 
to  drift  south,  and  many  animals  again  journeyed 
into  South  America,  where  the  climate  was  warmer. 
It  took  many  thousands  of  years  for  all  these 
changes  in  climate  to  occur,  and  when  animals 
shifted  their  homes  from  South  America  to  North 
America,  they  may  have  lived  north  for  many 
hundreds  of  years  before  they  felt  the  effects  of 
the  slowly  approaching  ice.  After  the  last  retreat 
of  the  ice  northward,  the  Mastodon  still  lived  on  in 
the  northeastern  part  of  the  United  States.  And 
about  this  time  the  horse,  which,  for  thousands  of 
years  had  been  developing  in  this  country,  mi- 
grated to  some  other  country,  although  just  where 
he  went  we  do  not  know.  Nor  were  there  ever  any 
other  horses  in  America  until  they  were  brought 
here  by  the  Spaniards. 

As  the  centuries  rolled  by,  all  the  gigantic  animals 
we  have  been  learning  about  completely  disappeared 
from  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  man,  at  last,  became 


SOME   SOUTH   AMERICAN   RULERS  143 

the  ruler  of  the  world.  Just  how  long  he  has  now 
ruled  we  do  not  know,  but  some  scientists  think 
that  human  beings  have  lived  on  this  earth  only 
about  fifty  thousand  years.  Before  this  the  mammals 
were  in  power  for  three  million  years  or  more,  and  be- 
fore them  was  the  reign  of  the  reptiles  which  lasted 
fully  seven  million  years.  And  then,  before  the  age 
of  the  reptiles,  were  other  forms  of  life  which  can  be 
traced  back  for  so  many  millions  of  years  that  the 
mind  cannot  comprehend  them. 

As  we  have  already  seen,  the  reason  this  life  can 
be  traced  so  far  back  is  because  the  fossil  bones  of 
many  animals  which  lived  in  those  days  are  found 
buried  in  rocks.  And  to-day  other  rocks  are  being 
formed  all  over  the  world  through  the  action  of  water 
on  mud  and  sand  and  shells,  and  the  bones  of  crea- 
tures familiar  to  us  are  being  changed  into  fossils 
within  these  rocks.  Perhaps,  millions  of  years 
from  now,  men,  women,  and  children  will  gaze  with 
astonishment  upon  these  fossils,  just  as  we  now  look 
in  wonder  and  in  awe  upon  the  skeletons  of  the 
mighty  animals  which  lived  before  man. 


MIGHTY  ANIMALS 

How  to  pronounce  their  names 

Arsinoe ar-sln'o-e 

Allosaurus al'lo-so'rus 

Arsinoitherium ar-sm'o-e-the'ri-um 

Brontosaurus brSn'to-so'rus 

Dinoceras      ...... .  dl-nos'er-as 

Dinosaur dl'no-sor 

Diplodocus dip-15d'6-kus 

Elasmosaur e-las'mo-s6r 

Eiotherium el'6-the'ri-um 

Glyptodon .  glip'to-don 

Ichthyosaur ik'thi-o-s6r' 

Ichthyosaurus Ik'thi-6-s6'rus 

Mammoth mam  oth 

Mastodon mas'to-don 

Megatherium meg'a-the'n-um 

Morosaurus ino'ro-sd'rus 

Mosasaur mo'sa-s6r 

Mylodon ml'16-don 

Plesiosaur ple'sI-6-sor' 

Pterodactyl    .     .     .     .^ ter'6-dak'til 

Stegosaurus steg'o-so'riis 

Titanothere tl'tan-o-ther 

Titanotherium ti'tan-6-the'ri-um 

Triceratops tri-ser'a-tops 

Tyranriosaurus ti-ran'6-so'rus 

Uinta u-In'ta 

Uintatherium u-m'ta-the'ri-um 


144 


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